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HISTORICAL STUDIES 



OF 



CHURCH- BUILDING 



IN THE 



^n 



MIDDLE AGES 



VENICE, SIENA, FLORENCE 



CHARLES ELIOT NORTON 







NEW YORK 

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1880 



^^'h 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year iS8o, by . 
HARPER & BROTHERS, - 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



CONTENTS. 



CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

Degradation of the Arts after Fall of the Roman Empire. — Effort of Charlemagne 
to Revive them. — Improvement during Tenth Century in the Conditions of 
Society. — Beginnings of Distinct National Life in Europe. — Principles of 
Unity; Christianity and the Church, the Tradition of the Roman Empire, 
Roman Law, Commerce, Equality of Intellectual Conditions. — Moral Unity 
of the Western Nations Illustrated by the History of Architecture from 
Eleventh to Thirteenth Century. — Revival of the Arts near looo A.D. — Anal- 
ogy in the History of Language and the Arts. — The Impulse of Expression 
in Architecture Manifest in Zeal for Church-building. — Motives of this Zeal. 
— The Services of the Church to Mediaeval Society. — Activity of Building 
in German}^ in Italy, and elsewhere. — Essential Similarity in the Style of 
Architecture throughout Western Europe. — The Romanesque Style. — Rapid, 
Regular, and Splendid Development of Architecture. — Monastic and Lay 
Builders. — The Gothic Style. — Revival of the Sense of Beauty, of the Study of 
Nature. — Pervading Artistic Spirit. — The Union of the Arts in the Church 
Edifice. — General Lack of Contemporary Information in regard to Church- 
building. — Illustrations from the Romances. — Exceptions to the General Lack 
of Information. — Conclusion Page x 



11. 

VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

Unique Character of Venice and the Venetians. — Affection of the Venetians for 
their City. — The Commerce of Venice, Trade with the East. — Political and 
Ecclesiastical Independence of the Venetians. — Civic Good Order. — Confi- 
dence in the Perpetuity of Venice. — St. Mark Patron of Venice. — Legend of 
the Translation of his Body from Alexandria. — The First Church of St. 
Mark. — Its Destruction by Fire. — Disappearance of the Body of the Saint. 
— The Miracle of its Discovery. — The Building and Plan of the Existing 
Church. — Its Adornment. — Mosaics. — Inscriptions. — Change in Character of 
Venetian Architecture in Fifteenth Centur)'. — St. Mark's as the Scene of 



iv CONTENTS. 

Public Transactions. — The Religious Quality of Venetian Character. — The 
Legend of Pope Alexander III. and Frederic Barbarossa. — Enrico Dandolo. 
— Preparations for the Third Crusade. — Mission of Villehardouin to Venice. 
— Proceedings of the Venetians. — Departure of the Fleet. — St. Mark's En- 
riched by the Pillage of Constantinople. — The Story of St. Mark's an Epit- 
ome of that of Venice Page 39 



III. 

SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

I. THE BEGINNING OF THE DUOMO, AND THE BATTLE OF MONTAPERTI. 

Turbulence of the Sienese during Middle Ages. — Public Works in Twelfth Cen- 
tury. — Beginning of the Duomo. — Its Site. — Story of the Early Work. — The 
Building a Work of the Commune. — Ordinances relating to it. — Sienese 
Archives. — Funds for Building. — The Festival of the Madonna of August. — 
Earliest Records relating to the Existing Building. — Work done in 1260. — 
Guelf and Ghibelline. — Effect of Death of Frederic II. on Party Relations. — 
Discord between Florence and Siena. — Ghibellines Exiled from Florence 
Welcomed by Siena. — Preparations for War. — Manfred Takes Siena under 
his Protection. — German Mercenaries. — Campaign of the Spring of 1260. — 
Farinata degli Uberti. — Preparations for Autumn Campaign. — Florentines 
March towards Siena, and Encamp at Montaperti. — Summons to the City to 
Surrender. — Deliberations and Preparations of the Sienese. — Battle of Mon- 
taperti. — Rout of the Florentines. — Results of the Sienese Victory 87 

II. THE STORY OF THE DUOMO AFTER I260. 

Progress of the Building. — The Cupola. — Irregularities in Construction. — The 
Pulpit of Niccola Pisano. — Release of Prisoners. — Pier Pettignano. — The 
Facade. — Giovanni Pisano. — Revival of Painting. — Duccio di Boninsegna, 
his Altar-piece.— Celebration in Taking it to the Duomo. — The New Baptis- 
tery. — Proposal for a New Church. — Its Rejection. — Slow Progress of the 
Building. — Oblates. — New Statutes respecting the Duomo. — Change in the 
Spiritual Temper of the People in Fourteenth Century. — Flourishing Condi- 
tion of the City. — Resolve to Build a New Church. — Beauty and Magnifi- 
cence of the New Design. — Work Begun. — Lando di Pietro. — Calamities in 
1340. — Activity in Public Works. — Increase of Wealth and Dissoluteness. — 
The Plague of 1348. — Its Horrors. — Desolation of the City. — Slow and Par- 
tial Recovery. — Diminution of Population, and of Means for Carrying on the 
Duomo. — The New Church Given Up and in Great Part Demolished. — End 
of the Story of the Duomo as a Great Civic Work. — Completion of the Exist- 
ing Building. — Its Wealth of Adornment. — Decline of Siena 124 



CONTENTS. y 

IV. 

FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

I. THE CHURCH OF ARNOLFO. 

Flourishing Condition of Florence at Close of Thirteenth Century. — Her Political 
Administration. — Ordinances of Justice. — The Arti, their Organization and 
Influence. — Public Works. — Rebuilding of Sta. Reparata. — New Church Be- 
gun 1294. — Sources of Means for its Erection. — Arnolfo di Cambio Archi- 
tect. — Character of his Style. — Wretched Condition of Florence in 1300. — 
Dino Compagni's Chronicle. — Charles of Valois at Florence. — Dante Con- 
demned and Banished. — Death of Arnolfo. — His Work in Florence. — Pal- 
aces and Towers. — Methods of Construction. — Conflagration of 1304. — Party 
Strife. — Neglect of Work on the Cathedral. — War with Castruccio Castra- 
cani. — Burning of Cecco d'Ascoli. — Effects of War. — Charge of the Duomo 
Committed to the Art of Wool. — Superintendence of Public Works by the 
Arts. — The Baptistery in Charge of the Art of Calimala. — Statute of the Art. 
— Feast of St. John Baptist. — Release of Prisoners. — The Care of the Car- 
roccio. — Procurators at Rome. — 1334: Giotto Chosen Chief Master of the 
Work of the Cathedral.— His Work on it.— His Bell-tower.— His Death.— 
The Plague of 1348. — Its Effects in Florence. — New Plans for the Duomo. — 
Arnolfo's Design Abandoned. — 1357 : Work Begun on the New Design. — 
Francesco Talenti Chief Master. — Character of the New Design. — Change 
in Architectural Taste. — Progress of the Work till the Beginning of Fifteenth 
Century Page i8x 

II. THE DOME OF BRUNELLESCHI. 

Picture in the Spanish Chapel in which the Duomo is Represented. — The Prob- 
lem of the Dome. — The Doors of the Baptistery. — Competition of 1401. — 
Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. — Decision in Favor of Ghiberti. — The Biographers 
of Brunelleschi. — Brunelleschi's Journey to Rome. — Its Object. — His Studies 
there. — Progress of Work on the Duomo. — Designs for the Dome. — Delib- 
erations of the Opera. — Competition. — Brunelleschi's Advice and Model. — 
Donatello Assists him. — Brunelleschi's Project. — Its Novelty and Boldness. — 
Decision in its Favor. — 1420: Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Battista d' Antonio 
Chosen Chief Master-builders. — Group of Artists at Florence. — Artistic Spirit 
of the Florentines. — Story of Building of the Cupola as told by Vasari. — 
Character of Vasari's Lives. — Giovanni di Gherardo's Sonnet and Remon- 
strance. — Progress of the Work. — Ghiberti's Incompetence. — Ruse of Bru- 
nelleschi. — 1432: Close of Ghiberti's Connection with the Work. ^Incidents 
of Building. — War with Filippo Visconti. — Slackness in Progress. — Renewal 
of Activity in Building. — 1434: Completion of Dome. — Pope Eugenius IV. in 
Florence. — 1436 : Consecration of the Duomo. — The Liiies of Vespasiano da 
Bisticci. — Cosimo de' Medici. — Activity of the Arts. — Benediction of the 
Cupola. — Leon Battista Alberti. — Dedication of his Treatise on Painting 
to Brunelleschi. — The Lantern. — Decision in Favor of Brunelleschi's Model. 



vi CONTENTS. 

— Brunellesclii in Charge of Construction. — Council of Florence. — Cere- 
mony of Union of Eastern and Western Churches in the Duomo. — Influ- 
ence of the Presence of Greek Prelates on the Study of Greek in Florence. 
— Death of Brunelleschi. — Completion of Brunelleschi's Design Page 234 

Appendix I. : Documents relating to the Duomo of Siena 295 

I. 1260. Extract from Statute. 

II. 1262. Letter of Captain of the People to the Commune of Mon- 
ticiano. 

III. 1272. Choice oi Oj^eraio. 

IV. 1280. Election of Board of Works. 
V. 1282. Release of Prisoners. 

VI. 1290. Donation of Money by the Commune. 

VII. 1297. Ghino di Tacco. 

VIII. 1337. Extract from Statute. 

IX. 1353. Subsidy for the Works. 

X. 1388. Order Concerning the Drafting of Wills. 

XI. 1389. Order Concerning Offerings. 

Appendix II. .- Irregularities of Construction in Italian Buildings 
OF the Middle Ages 319 

Index 323 



I 
CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



HISTORICAL STUDIES 

OF 

CHURCH-BUILDING 

IN THE 

MIDDLE AGES. 



I. 

CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

The completeness of the wreck of ancient civiliza- 
tion in Western Europe during the centuries that fol- 
lowed the fall of the Roman Empire is indicated by 
the degradation of all the arts of expression. As one 
light of ancient civilization after another was extin- 
guished, the habits of culture, of which these arts are 
the manifestation, disappeared. The language of com- 
mon speech as well as that of literature became feeble 
and corrupt. The last book in which something of 
classic dignity and vigor survived bore the significant 
title of The Consolation of Philosophy. Palace, villa, 
and temple, the monuments of ancient elegance and 
splendor, were destroyed by violence, or deserted and 
left to slow decay. No new great works of civic 
utility or adornment were undertaken; the old were 



A CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

no longer maintained. Architecture, sculpture, and 
painting, if practised at all, were occupied with the 
rude execution of poor and unimaginative designs. 
Skill even in the mechanic arts declined. 

In Italy, indeed, a few cities remained, or became for 
a longer or shorter time, centres of a life that preserved 
feeble traditions of the old civilization or displayed 
some traits of original culture. Rome, not yet at her 
worst, was busy alike in destroying the works of hea- 
then ao^es* and in buildinof and decoratinsf Christian 
churches that reproduced the forms of the imperial 
basilica. Ravenna received from Constantinople the 

* The rapid loss of sense of the worth of works of ancient art gives 
evidence, not so much of the change of sentiment due to the' influence 
of Christianity, as of the growth of actual barbarism. The following 
extract from a letter by R. Lanciani, in the Athcnaum (London) of June 
24, 1879, illustrates this point : 

" Two striking instances of the wanton destruction of works of art 
after the fall of the Empire have been obtained in the last days. A 
few yards from the so-called Temple of Miner\ra Medica a wall was 
discovered built with statues. Seven have already been put together, 
as I mentioned in my last letter. Not far from the same place we are 
exploring a foundation wall, eight feet square, built with the same ma- 
terials. The upper strata contain slabs of marble, stripped from pave- 
ments and from walls, steps, lintels, thresholds, etc. The middle strata 
contain columns, pedestals, capitals, all split into fragments. Finally, 
at the bottom of the wall, statues begin to appear of exquisite work- 
manship, together with busts, hermse, bass-reliefs, etc. The stratifica- 
tion of these marbles shows that at the time when the foundation wall 
was being constructed there was in the neighborhood a shrine, a tem- 
ple, a fountain, or some such monument, in good preserv^ation and pro- 
fusely ornamented. The masons first took advantage of whatever was 
movable without difficulty, and accordingly we find the statues at the 
bottom of the trench. Then they put their hands on what was half 
movable, and this is the reason why columns, capitals, etc., are found 
in the middle strata. A further want of materials obliged them to at- 
tack at last the building itself, its steps, thresholds, etc." 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF EUROPE. c 

arts which gave lustre to the Empire of the East. The 
Lonibards showed in their rough but impressive work 
the vigorous spirit and kindling imagination of a strong, 
half-barbaric Northern race. 

But throughout the greater part of Europe the ele- 
ments of society were too confused, and its conditions 
too unsettled, for the undertaking of any work that re- 
quired stable modes of life and implied confidence in 
the permanence of established order. Charlemagne 
(742-814) indeed, who, for a moment, by force of he- 
roic personal character and iron will, evoked order out 
of chaos, and revived the fading memoiy of imperial 
authority, conceived the generous but impracticable de- 
sign of restoring life to literature and the arts. The 
famous church at Aachen is the venerable monument 
of his effort, and one of the most impressive memorials 
in the world of the power of character over circum- 
stance. But the order which Charlemasrne established 
in his dominions, and which alone made culture and the 
arts possible, fell to pieces in the nerveless hands of his 
successors. The conditions of society became more 
wretched and distracted than ever; and, in the confu- 
sion and tumult of the ninth century, all forms of ex- 
pression became still ruder and feebler than before. 

But this period of disintegration and dissolution was 
one of preparation for the reorganization of society 
upon new foundations. The old structure must be de- 
stroyed that the new might come into existence. As 
years went on the brutal forces of anarchy were here 



5 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

and there successfully withstood. The principles by 
which the modern world was to be regulated slowly 
gained strength, though but dimly recognized and im- 
perfectly defined. 

In the course of the tenth century, Europe began 
to take on a new shape. A faint consciousness of dis- 
tinct national life was felt in Italy, Germany, France, 
and Endand. The lines of modern nationalities were 
beginning to define themselves. The wanderings of 
the races had almost ceased, and the people were set- 
tling down into their permanent homes. At the same 
time, while the various nations were thus drawing 
apart within local boundaries of which the precise 
limits were, indeed, in many cases but imperfectly de- 
termined, certain general influences were operating in- 
cessantly and irresistibly to unite them as they had 
never before been united as members of a vast and 
real, however vague, moral commonwealth. 

Chief among these uniting influences was Christian- 
ity. For it not only subjected all believers, whatever 
their difference of race and custom, to a common rule 
of interior life, bringing all under one universally ac- 
knowledged, supreme authority, but it also filled their 
imaginations with common hopes and fears, and sup- 
plied their understandings with common conceptions 
of the universe, of the origin and order of the world, 
and of the destiny of man. 

The Church, in which the authority of Christianity 
was organized and embodied as the divine instrument 



THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE. « 

for the government of the world, claimed universal 
obedience. Within her pale there was no distinction 
of race or of person. Her discipline exacted of all men 
equal submission. Her ceremonial observances were 
celebrated everywhere with a uniform and impressive 
ritual. Her sacraments were essential to salvation. 
By the vast mass of ecclesiastical tradition and legend 
she afforded the material of thought, fancy, and feeling 
to the whole body of Christian people; and by fixing 
her chief seat at Rome she had secured the inher- 
itance of a large share of the superstitious reverence 
with which the paramount dominion of the mistress of 
the ancient world had been regarded from of old. 

While she thus asserted her authority over the 
spiritual concerns of men, and extended it over many 
of their material interests, the tradition of the right of 
Rome to the government of the world survived also in 
the name of the Roman Empire, transmitting to the 
inheritor of the title of emperor, whoever he might be, 
the claim to hold, by equally divine right, the sword of 
earthly sovereignty. The Empire was, in truth, often, 

^nd for long periods, little more than a name for an 
ideal institution ; but this name was the source of the 

. most prevailing political theory of the Middle Ages ; 
and such was the force of the idea behind the name 
that it sufficed to hold the greater part of Europe in 
alleo^iance, binding^ tos^ether the North and the South — 
Germany and Italy — as under a yoke of fate ; so that, in 
spite of difference of race, tradition, language, and cus- 



8 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

torn, in spite of mutual hatred and incessant war, the 
people of the two lands were compelled to advance 
along the path of history with a common and control- 
ling sentiment for the image and authority of imperial 
Rome. 

Associated with the idea of the Empire of Rome, yet 
distinct from it, and even more effective as an influ- 
ence in giving unity to the civilization of Europe, was 
the body of legal principles and political conceptions 
derived from the system of Roman law and admin- 
istration — principles and conceptions which, though 
greatly and variously modified by the laws and cus- 
toms of the Teutonic races, had yet a large share in 
determining the new moral order of society. 

The contrast to the conditions of the ancient world 
wrought by the influence of these dominant elements 
of unity Is of the most striking character. For the first 
time in history the people of nations of diverse origin, 
language, and tradition were brought and held together 
by the indissoluble ties of a common faith and a com- 
mon rule of conduct, as well as by generally correspond- 
ing convictions in respect to legal government and civil 
order. Under the diversified forms of institutions varied 
by local conditions, these principles moulded into gen- 
eral similarity the broad features of the inner as well 
as the outer life of men throughout Western Europe. 

But besides the influences exerted by the Church 
and the Empire — by the Rome of the present and the 
past — to create and foster the moral unity of mediaeval 



SOURCES OF MORAL UNITY. g 

society, there were others of a more material nature. 
Wherever life and property acquired some degree of 
security, however imperfect, commerce, still half pirat- 
ical, and exposed to peril on sea and land, began to 
weave her fine, strong network of mutual interests be- 
tween distant lands. Venice, daughter of the waves, 
led the way across the seas with her fleets, ready alike 
for battle or for trade. The sails of Pisa and Genoa 
flew close behind. Before long, the intelligence of the 
artisans of Florence made their city the inland rival of 
the wealthy seaports. In Germany, in France, in Eng- 
land, one town after another began to grow strong and 
rich by industry and traffic. 

Still another source of unity lay in the fact that the 
ruin of the old civilization had been so complete ; that 
in the fall of the ancient order the ancient culture had 
become extinct. Many of the old sources of knowledge 
were choked ; no one race or people possessed any ab- 
solute intellectual or material pre-eminence; the men- 
tal development of all was alike rude and childish, and 
the most enlightened men were everywhere groping 
about in uncertain gloom to collect the scattered mate- 
rials for the reconstruction of learning. The very equal- 
ity of ignorance tended to produce community of senti- 
ment. The mental interests of men were everywhere 
similar in kind ; their chief topics of thought for the 
most part alike. 

Thus, towards the beginning of the second thousand 
years of our era, the greater part of Europe was divid- 



lO CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

ing itself into distinct nations, different in historic ex- 
perience and intermixture of blood, but yet united by 
many mutual relations and by common tendencies of 
civilization, so as to form a vague commonwealth in 
which the higher interests of man — religion, law, knowl- 
edge — the deep-rooted traditions common to the Eu- 
ropean race, and the most widely dominant institutions 
were operating with irregular but constant force to 
bring its discordant members into closer moral connec- 
tion with each other than had been possible in any pre- 
vious epoch of history. 

• This essential and characteristic feature of the mod- 
ern world, this main distinction between ancient and 
modern civilization, finds its clearest and most brilliant 
expression in the art of architecture from the eleventh 
to the thirteenth century. The motives which inspired 
the great buildings of this period, the principles which 
underlay their forms, the general character of the forms 
themselves, were, in their essential nature, the same 
throughout Western Europe from Italy to England. 
The differences in the works of different lands are but 
local and external varieties. This intrinsic similarity 
of spirit gives unity to the history of the art, and makes 
it practicable to treat even a fragment of it, such as that 
of church-building, not merely as a study of separate 
edifices, but as a clear and brilliant illustration of the 
general conditions of society, and especially of its mor- 
al and intellectual dispositions. • 

No precise date can be fixed for the reawakening of 



GROWTH OF MODERN LANGUAGES. n 

the arts in the Middle Ages. The dawn was gradual, 
and broke earlier in one region than another. Wherev- 
er, in free or imperial city, in royal or monastic domain, 
such a degree of order was established that regular and 
legal modes of life became customary, and men could 
look forward beyond the narrow horizon of their own 
lives with confidence of transmitting their remembrance 
and their property to their successors, wealth began to 
accumulate, intelligence revived. 

As life became richer and more settled, the range 
of sentiment and of thought widened. Men felt un- 
wonted need of utterance and communication, and lan- 
guage and the arts answered to the strong inward emo- 
tion. There w^as a close parallel in their conditions. 
The Roman tongue had suffered a slow corruption. 
Rudeness and barbarism had wrought their worst with 
it. It broke up into various dialects; the dialects 
themselves were in process of constant change. In the 
South as well as in the North the elements of Teutonic 
tongrues became more and more mingled with it. The 
time came when no layman used Latin in his daily con- 
versation. At length, after this long confusion, after 
unforeseen and unintended transformations and muta- 
tions, new languages were found to exist — languages 
supple, fresh, differing in composition and in virtue, suf- 
ficient not only for the transient needs of intercourse, 
but for the permanent ends of literature, and capable of 
modulation to the finest forms of poetry — each not a 
degraded ancient language, but a new language with 



12 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

qualities and advantages of its own, requiring only to 
be developed by use in order to afford the fit garb for 
every mood of sentiment and every tone of thought. 

■ Among the arts, the one that has alike the closest 
and the widest relations to the life of a people — to its 
wants, habits, and culture — and which gives the fullest 
and most exact expression to its moral disposition, its 
imagination, and its intelligence, is that of architecture. ■ 
Its history during the Dark Ages had been analogous 
to that of language. • The requirements it had had to 
meet were in great part confined to those of immediate 
necessity. There was little thought of building for pos- 
terity. • But as the condition of society slowly changed 
for the better the improvement found manifestation in 
architecture even earlier than in literature. The grow- 
ing sense of perpetuity in the life of the community 
promoted the revival of permanent and monumental 
building. . The new structures showed their derivation 
from ancient models, but they were instinct with an 
original spirit by which design and construction were 
to be gradually but profoundly modified in response to 
the needs and desires of men controlled by ideas, sen- 
timents, and emotions widely different from those of 
the ancient world. 

. There are many indications of this revival as early 
as the last quarter of the tenth century,* but the year 

* The existing Church of St. Mark at Venice and the Duomo of 
INIurano were begun at this period ; but Venice was more advanced 
in civilization than any other part of Europe. 



THE REVIVAL OF ARCHITECTURE. j -, 

looo may be taken as a convenient date to mark the 
setting-in of a strong current of progress in the art, 
which, for nearly two hundred and fifty years, runs 
on through ever deepening and widening channels. 
From this time the successive steps may be traced 
by which it advanced with constant increase of power 
of expression, of pliability and variety of adaptation, 
of beauty in design and skill in construction, until, 
at last, in the consummate splendor of such a cathe- 
dral as that of Our Lady of Chartres or of Amiens, it 
reached a heis^ht of achievement that has never been 
surpassed. 

-It was especially in the building of churches that 
the Impulse for expression in architecture displayed 
itself, for it was in the church that the faith of the 
community took visible form. The two motives which 
have been most effective in the production of noble 
human works — religion and local affection and pride — 
united to stimulate energies that had long been sup- 
pressed. Either alone or in combination, these two 
most powerful principles of action were alike existent 
in their highest force. The nature of mediaeval socie- 
ty cannot be understood, the meaning and character of 
a medieval cathedral will not be comprehended, the 
devotion and sacrifices of the builders of churches in 
city and village, in desert places and on mountain-tops, 
unless the imagination represent the force and con- 
stancy of religious motives in a rude society, and the 
commanding position which the Church then occu- 



14 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

pied towards the world as the recognized representa- 
tive of the Divine government, and the authoritative 
expounder of the Divine will. The lawlessness and ra- 
pine prevalent during the Dark Ages, the oppression 
of the weak, the misery of the poor, the uncertainty 
of life and possession among all classes, the contrast 
between the actual state of society and the concep- 
tions of the kingdom of heaven, of which the Church 
was the visible though imperfect type, brought all men 
to her doors. . 

In the midst of darkness and confusion and dread, 
the ideal Church — and it is by ideal and fanciful con- 
ceptions that men of imperfectly trained intelligence 
are apt to be most powerfully and permanently affect- 
ed — presented herself as a harbor of refuge from the 
storms of the world, as the image of the city of God, 
whose walls were a sure defence. While all else was 
unstable and changeful, she, with her unbroken tradi- 
tion and her uninterrupted services, vindicated the prin- 
ciple of order and the moral continuity of the race. 
Superstition, natural in a period of low culture, stimu- 
lated piety, and displayed itself in ardors of irrational 
and imaginative devotion, of w^iich the first Crusades 
afford a striking instance. No sacrifice by which their 
faith might be witnessed, no effort to secure salvation, 
seemed extreme to men in this temper. The doctrines 
of the Church in respect to heaven and hell lent them- 
selves to material interpretation. The endowment of 
monasteries, the building of churches, were works by 



THE SERVICES OF THE CHURCH. jc 

which the Divine favor was to be secured and the soul 
to be saved. 

A deep, wide-spread conviction of human sinfulness 
was one of the characteristic traits of these times, hav- 
ing its root not so much in the doctrine of the fallen 
nature of man as in the fact of the prevalence of crime, 
immorality, and suffering. The Church alone could lift 
from the world the burden of its sin ; and though her 
ministers might fall short of fulfilling their high calling, 
though pope, prelate, and priest might be partakers in 
violence and partners in sin, yet the Church remained 
pure, steadfastly upholding the power of righteousness, 
preaching the coming of the Lord to judge the earth, 
assertino^ her claim to loose and to bind, and vindicat- 
ing it with the blood of confessors and martyrs. 
• But, besides all this, the Church was the great popu- 
lar institution of the Middle Ages, cheering and pro- 
tecting the poor and friendless ; the teacher, the healer, 
the feeder of the " little people of God." The services 
of monastic and secular clergy alike, their offices of 
faith, charity, and labor in the field and the hovel, in 
the school and the hospital, as well as in the church, 
were for centuries the chief witnesses of the spirit of 
human brotherhood, and of the one essential doctrine 
of Christianity. In times when lord and serf were far- 
thest apart, when the villain had no rights but those of 
the beasts which perish, the Church read the parable 
of Dives and Lazarus, and declared the equality of man 
in the presence of God. • 



1 6 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

Her priesthood, spread abroad over the world, form- 
ed a vast corporation, inspired by similar motives, link- 
ed by common interests, and supplying to a distracted 
society the priceless example of strength that had its 
source in unity. For every member of this vast body 
of the priesthood was strong, not only in the sanctity 
of his office, but in the numbers and the sympathy 
of his brethren, and in the authority of the Church 
herself. The clergy formed the first general society 
in Europe, and it was through their intercourse that 
some semblance of interchange of thought was main- 
tained among widely separated nations. 

•It was not strange, then, that when, towards the 
close of the tenth centur}^ in various parts of Europe, 
the sense of increasing civil order and security was 
distinctly felt, one of the first signs of this improve- 
ment was a general zeal for the building of churches — 
a work of piety to which all, poor and rich, weak and 
strong, alike could contribute, and in the merits of 
which all could have a share. - It was a work for the 
glory of God and of his Mother, for the honor of the 
saints, for the credit of the community, for the eternal 
benefit of every individual. The hearts and the imag- 
inations of all men were engaged in it ; the dispersed 
resources of the people were brought together to achieve 
it ; capacities that had long been unused were evoked, 
and, as in other ages, a vivid and earnest faith found 
its just and characteristic expression. 

According to the testimony of a contemporary eye- 



REBUILDING OF MONASTIC CHURCHES. 17 

witness, Rudolphus Glaber, or Rudolph the Bald, a 
monk of Cluny, just after the thousandth year had 
passed, men began throughout almost all the world, 
but especially in Italy and France, to rebuild the 
churches, and in more noble style than that before in 
use. " It was as if the earth," such is his picturesque 
phrase, " rousing itself and casting away its old robes, 
clothed itself with the white garment of churches." * 
* Of these new churches, a great number were those 
of abbeys and monasteries. The inestimable services 
which, during the most troubled times, the religious or- 

* " Erat enim instar ac si mundus ipse excutiendo semet, rejecta 
vetustate, passim candidam ecclesiarum vestem indueret." Historica 
sui Teniporis, lib. iii. cap. vi. ; De Imtovaiz'cne Ecclesiariim in toto Orbe. 
Rudolph the Bald's History of his Own Time, from the election of 
Hugh Capet to the year 1046, in spite of its wretched style, gives a 
striking picture of the material and intellectual conditions of the 
period. The fables and miracles with which the book abounds afford 
many illustrations of the spiritual temper of the age. It was first 
printed by Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Scriptores, tom. iv. pp. 1-58 ; it is 
included by Migne in his Patrologia, tom. cxlii. In connection with 
this general impulse of church-building, Rudolph says that about this 
time many relics of saints that had long lain hidden were discovered. 
" Candidato, ut diximus, in novatis Ecclesiarum basilicis, universo 
mundo, subsequenti tempore, id est anno octavo infra praedictum mil- 
lesimum humanati Salvatoris annum [1008], revelata sunt, diversorum 
argumentorum indiciis, quorsum diu latuerant, plurimorum Sanctorum 
pignora." Ibid. cap. vi. The effect of this discovery was to quicken 
and maintain the ardor of the pious, and to secure constant and abun- 
dant contributions to the work. 

The renewal of monumental building in the eleventh century has 
often been ascribed to the sense of relief and security experienced by 
the Christian community after the completion of the first thousand 
years of our era, there having been, it is asserted, a general apprehen- 
sion of the end of the world at this date. This belief was, doubtless, 
wide-spread, but it was by no means universal, and there is abundant 
evidence to show that it had not prevented men, towards the close of 
the tenth Qentury, from undertaking works intended for long duration. 

2 



1 8 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

I ders had rendered to society, by maintaining the stand- 
ard of self-discipline, of obedience, of humility and char- 
ity; by cherishing the faint and almost expiring coals 
of letters and learning and the arts ; by the shelter 
and immunity which they afforded not only to their 
own brethren, but to the poor people settled on their 
lands ; by their well-directed labor on the soil and in 
the mechanic arts, as well as by the powerful influence 
of their example as centres of orderly life — all these 
services had been rewarded by the increase of their 
possessions and their power. Exemptions and privi- 
leges, the donations and bequests of the pious and the 
penitent, had enriched the abbeys and monasteries in 
all parts of Europe, and had extended their domains 
till they included a vast portion of the land.* 

The original churches of the monasteries, which had 
been for the most part humble, but sufficient for their 
early needs, were little befitting their increased size, 
dignity, and wealth. The time had come for the build- 
ing of churches which should correspond to these new 
conditions, and the arts which had long found shelter 

* It is not possible to determine with accuracy the proportion of the 
soil held respectively by the regular and the secular clergy. " They 
did enjoy," says Hallam, "according to some authorities, nearly one 
half of England, and I believe a greater proportion in some countries 
of Europe." Europe during the Middle Ages, ch. vii. pt. i. ; compare 
Milman, Latin Christianify, bk. xiv. ch. i. Mr. Bryce, speaking of Ger- 
many, says, " In the eleventh century, a full half of the land and wealth 
of the country, and no small part of its military strength, was in the 
hands of Churchmen." T/ie Holy Roman Empire (1866), ch. viii. p. 140. 
In France a similar state of things existed ; the domains of the great 
abbeys, such as Cluny and St. Denis, were of the size of provinces. 



ZEAL IN THE WORK IN GERMANY. ig 

and nurture in the cloister were to repay the debt 
many-fold. ' 

The secular clergy were not slow in following the 
example of their regular brethren. They not only 
recognized the advantage to the Church, as a popu- 
lar institution, to be derived from the general zeal in 
church-building, but they also shared in the common 
emotion, and took part in the common labor. The 
bishops promoted the erection both of cathedrals and 
of parish churches. In Germany, for instance, where 
the bishops of the more powerful sees exercised civil 
no less than ecclesiastical authority, almost as inde- 
pendent princes, the activity in church-building under 
their lead during the first half of the eleventh century 
was enormous.* The work was encouraged by a suc- 
cession of devout and vigorous emperors. There is a 
tradition that the foundations of three churches, two 
of them the mightiest of the time — the Minster at 
Limburg, the Cathedral at Speier, and the Church 
of St. John the Evangelist in the same city — were 
laid on one day, in 1030, by the great emperor Con- 
rad II. The fact is questionable, but the story rep- 
resents the spirit of the age.f 

• Many of the new designs were on such a scale as 
to require for their execution the toil and the con- 
tributions of more than one generation of believers. 

* Schnaase, Geschichte der bildenden Ki'mste (1871), Band iv. p. 328. 

t F. von Quast, Die romanischoi Dome des Mittelrheiiis su Mainz, 
Speier, Wo7-ms (1853), p. 25; Otte, Geschichte der deiitschen Baukimsi 
(1874), p. 220. 



20 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

The work was aided by imperial subsidies, by epis- 
copal privileges and indulgences, by gifts from the 
episcopal revenues. The massive piles rose with 
grandeur above the clustering roofs at their feet, and 
threw their broad shadows, like a protecting mantle, 
over city or hamlet- Of the multitude of churches 
erected in Germany during this period, most have dis- 
appeared — many of them burned, many ruined by war 
or other violence, many remodelled ; but a few, such 
as the great Rhenish cathedrals of Mainz, of Speier, 
and of Worms, still exist, more or less changed, but 
enduring monuments of the emotions and sentiments 
to which their builders sought to give expression, as 
well as of the intelligence and the art with which the 
zeal of the community was served.* ' 

In Italy the Church held a different position from 
that which it occupied in the Western nations of Eu- 
rope. Great as its services to civilization in Italy had 
been, it had not been the sole ark of the higher inter- 
ests of society. The imperial traditions of Rome had 
been here more than elsewhere a strong principle of 

* "The grandeur of the whole building," says Von Quast, speaking 
of the Cathedral at Speier, " which of all Romanesque churches makes 
the most powerful impression on the beholder, and the simplicity of 
its detail, which approaches even to rudeness, correspond in every re- 
spect to the character which it should possess, founded as it was by an 
emperor, and zealously carried to completion by his successors at the 
height of the power of the German Empire, in the eleventh century, in 
order that it should serve as the resting-place of the highest earthly 
rulers of the world." Die romanischeJt Dome des Mittelrheins, p. 27. 
Earthly pride was often combined as a strong motive with pious devo- 
tion in the erection and adornment of these buildings. 



IN ITALY. 2 I 

order throughout the confusions of centuries in which 
the change from the ancient to the modern world had 
been going on. Something of Roman culture and 
of Roman institutions, at least in the suggestive form 
of memories of past achievements, had been saved for 
Italy from the wreck of the empire. This very pre- 
dominance of Rome deprived the clergy in other cities 
of Italy of a portion of such authority as they exer- 
cised in more remote localities. The episcopal sees 
were, indeed, even more numerous than in other lands ; 
but they were of less extent, their revenues were gen- 
erally of less amount, and their bishops rarely pos- 
sessed that independent sovereign authority which 
those at a greater distance from Rome frequently 
exercised. Thus, though there was great activity 
in church- building in Italy during the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries, the upper clergy had less to do 
with the work than in Germany or England. It was 
mainly the expression of the piety of the citizens of 
towns in which wealth was accumulating, and of the 
spirit of a community animated with a sense of inde- 
pendence and of strength, and becoming confident of 
perpetuity.* The new cathedral in an Italian city 
was the witness of civic as well as of religious devo- 
tion, of pride and of patriotism consecrated by piety. 

* Muratori remarks on the display of piety in the free cities after the 
year looo: " Particolarmente poi dopo 1' anno millesimo, e dappoiche 
buona parte delle citta d' Italia riacquisto la liberta, ciascuna d' esse 
gareggio per onorare al possibile il Santo suo tutelare." Delle Antichi- 
ta Italiane, dissert. 58, tomo iii. parte i. p. 241, 



2 2 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

It was also the sign of the favor of Heaven in the 
bestowal of the prosperity of which it gave evi- 
dence. • 

While the common character of the prevailing spir- 
itual influences by which the various nations of Eu- 
rope were affected is shown by this wide-spread zeal in 
church-building, a similar indication of the common 
stage of development at which they had arrived is af- 
forded by the essential likeness in the style of their 
edifices. Under the general likeness, there were, in- 
deed, marked varieties. In Venice and the South of 
Italy, for example, architecture borrowed more than 
in the rest of Europe from the East. In Florence 
and in Rome herself the tradition of ancient Rome 
exercised a more exclusive influence than elsewhere. 
But from the Duomo of Pisa to the Cathedral of 
Mainz, from the churches of the Arno to those of the 
Rhine and the Seine, from Monte-Cassino to Cluny 
and Durham, one ruling style is to be traced under 
which innumerable differences of plan, detail, and con- 
struction arrange themselves as local peculiarities or 
progressive historical developments. 

The name Romanesque, which has been given to this 
style, very nearly corresponds with the term Romance 
as applied to a group of languages. It signifies the 
derivation of the main elements, both of plan and of 
construction, from the works of the later Roman Em- 
pire. But Romanesque architecture was not, as it has 
been called, " a corrupted imitation of the Roman archi- 



ELEMENTS OF THE ROMANESQUE STYLE. 2^ 

lecture,"* any more than the Provencal or the Italian 
language was a corrupted imitation of the Latin. It 
was a new thing, the slowly matured product of a 
long period and of many influences. The architect of 
the court of Diocletian's great palace at Spalato and 
the builder of the little Duomo of Torcello, though 
separated by seven hundred years, used similar con- 
structive methods, adopted similar forms, and sup- 
ported their arches upon columns in the same fash- 
ion ; but the work of one was classic, of the other 
mediaeval. The outward resemblances are strong, 
but no one could suppose the two buildings to pro- 
ceed from the same spirit, or to express the sentim.ent 
of the same age.f 

* Whewell, Architectural Notes on German Churches (3d ed., Cam- 
bridge, 1842), p. 48. In his omniscience, Dr. Whewell included an un- 
usual knowledge of architecture. This book still retains its value for 
students. 

t The Palace of Diocletian was built near the beginning of the fourth 
century, when the emperor, abdicating the government, retired " to 
grow cabbages " during his last years in his native province of Dalma- 
tia. The arcade of the court is remarkable as one of the earliest 
known instances of arched construction in which the arches spring 
directly from the capitals of the columns which support them. This 
step in the development of arched architecture, the importance of 
which Mr. Freeman exaggerates in an interesting paper on " The Ori- 
gin and Growth of Romanesque Architecture," in the Fortnightly Re- 
view, Oct., 1872, marks the point at which the builders of the Middle 
Ages took up the art. 

A fine plate of the court is given by Adam, in his Rtmis of the Palace 
of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro (1864), one of those superb works 
of investigation and delineation of ancient architecture which, from 
the Atttiqtiities of Athens of Stuart and Revett to the Principles of 
Atheniati Architecture by Penrose, have done credit to the energy and 
the learning of English architects. 

The Duomo at Torcello was, according to a doubtful tradition, origi- 



24 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

The elements of the construction — the column or 
the pier and the round arch, the broad spaces of solid 
walls, and their strongly marked horizontal Hnes — 
these and other features were common to the Roman 
and the mediaeval building. But the members of 
the architecture became plastic in the hands of the 
medieval builders, acquiring new life and character. 
The arch, as the controlling element of the structure, 
was moulded with an admirable effect unknown to the 
Romans. Compelled often to use materials of small 
size in the construction of arches of great dimensions, 
the mediaeval builders followed the method of the ear- 
liest times — of which the Cloaca Maxima itself gives 
an example — in building the arches in rims, or several 
concentric layers, one over the other, each layer form- 
ing a distinct arch ; but instead of building them 
square through the hca\y w^all, they made only the 
upper arched layer of the full width of the wall, and 
recessed each of the subordinate rims, thus securing 
not only economy of material, but play of light and 
shade, a freer opening for light, and full opportunity 
for variety of rich ornamentation. The change thus 
introduced was of far-reaching effect. The support 

nally built in the seventh century ; it was restored or rebuilt in 864. 
and again in 1008. This last church exists essentially unaltered, pro- 
tected by the desolation of the little island on which it stands. The 
best account of it is in Ruskin's Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. ii. See also 
Mothes, Baukimst tind Bildhauerei Vcncdigs (Leipzig, 1859), pp. 26 seq. 
When the Duomo of Torcello was finally rebuilt, Spalato was subject 
to the dominion of Venice. Sanudo, Vite de Diiclii, in Muratori, Rer. 
Ital. Script, torn. xxii. p. 468 D. 



THE CHARACTER OF ITALIAN DESIGN. 25 

of the arch, whether pier or column, was shaped to 
match with its various orders. Each rim rested on 
a corresponding division of the support; the pier was 
subdivided to meet the subordination of the arch ; the 
column, from being single, became clustered. The 
transformation was not effected all at once. It was the 
result of experiment on experiment, of step after step 
of progress. And it was not a solitary improvement. 
The builders exercised their imagination and their 
reason conjointly on every part of the construction.* 
In the matter of plan, the forms which the Roman 
Christians had adopted as suitable to the requirements 
of ceremony and worship were still, in great part, fitted 
to meet the needs of the Church after the lapse of five 
or six hundred years. But the builders of the eleventh 
century did not simply adopt the ancient forms. The 
plans, no less than the construction of their buildings, 
were gradually modified, with slow development but 
with rational and regular procedure, in accordance 
with the demands and the sentiment of the new time. 
X In Italy, where the tradition of building on a great 
scale had never completely perished, the power of orig- 
inal design and of skilful execution of architectural 
works displayed itself as soon as the new impulse of 
church-building was strongly felt. The Italian build- 
ers — or, more strictly, the Tuscan builders — possessed 

* The subject is well treated from the architectural point of view in 
Sir Gilbert Scott's Lectures on the Rise and Development of Mcdiardal 
Architecture (1879), vol. i. p. 223. 



26 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE ACES. 

a sense of dignity of proportion and of elegance of 
decoration such as was nowhere else displayed. The 
ancient, inextinguishable genius of Etruria shone out 
once more with pre-eminent brightness. The Duomo 
of Fiesole, the exquisite Church of San Miniato al 
Monte near Florence, the Duomo at Pisa, are exam- 
ples of the work of the Tuscan architects of the 
eleventh century. In other countries the designs did 
not lack in grandeur, but they were less noble in pro- 
portions, less refined in ornament, and less beautiful, if 
not less impressive, in effect. Everywhere the art 
showed itself capable of meeting the demand upon 
it for structures that should embody in permanent 
form the fervid spirit of the time. The education of 
the cloister had prepared artists competent for the 
work which was required, while others sprang from 
among the laity, trained by the discipline of familiar 
industries.* ■ 

* It has been asserted by most writers on the history of the arts of 
the Middle Ages that up to the twelfth century the practice of the fine 
arts was confined to the clergy. " Alle Kunst nur von der Kirche, und 
besonders von den Sitzen grosserer Strenge, von den Klostern, aus- 
ging." " Jedenfalls aber waren die Kloster und Domschulen die einzi- 
gen Bildungsstiitten der Kiinstler." Schnaase, Geschichte der bildenden 
Kiinste (1871), Band iv. pp. 326, 327. " Ainsi avant le douzieme siecle 
. . . I'architecture est dans les mains du clerge ; . . . au treizieme siecle, 
au contraire, . . , I'art de batir n'appartient qu'aux laiques." Vitet, 
Etudes siir l Histoire de I Art, deuxieme serie, Notre-Dame de Noyon, 
p. 131. That most of the culture of the age, including that of the fine 
arts, was in the hands of the clergy is unquestionably true. The clois- 
ter supplied many of the architects, painters, sculptors, overseers of 
works, and even many of the workmen themselves. But at no time 
were lay artists wholly wanting. Springer, in his treatise De Artifici- 
bus Monachis et Laicis Medii ^vi (1861), gives a large selection of ex- 



PROGRESS OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 2 7 

In the history of architecture there are few passages 
of study more interesting than that of the development 
of the various forms of Romanesque, and of the grad- 
ual evolution, in the course of the twelfth century, of the 
new forms and principles of the Gothic style. There 
are no gaps in the record of this progress. From the 
vast Romanesque church of the mighty Benedictine 
Abbey of Cluny, through the multitude of the churches 
of the Cistercian Order erected in the early part of the 
twelfth century, to the famous church built by the great 
Abbot Suger at St. Denis, the increasing use of the 
pointed arch is to be clearly traced, from its first timid 
employment in construction, till it appears where no 
constructive advantage is gained by it, and the choice 
marks a change not only of method but also of taste. 
And then, from St. Denis and Vezelay to the cathedrals 
of the lie de France, the supremacy of this arch asserts 
itself more and more, modifying every portion of the 
structure in conformity with its imperative lines, until 
the whole is changed into the new style, and Gothic 
architecture stands complete. The course of this 
transformation was no less regular than rapid. Each 
step of progress was based on intelligent application 
of principle. ' The builder was at once artist and 
man of science, and one knows not which to admire 

tracts from inscriptions and documents in proof of this fact. The pro- 
portion of lay artists increased in the twelfth century. As a broad 
statement, it may be said that Romanesque art mainly proceeded from 
the clergy, while Gothic art received its fullest development from the 
hands of lay artists. 



28 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

most — the imagination in the design, or the inven- 
tion and intelligence in the accomplishment of the 
work. 

Never did the varied thoughts, the complex senti- 
ments, the multiplied fancies and emotions of a sensi- 
tive, active, and passionate age, find such complete, 
such superb expression as within the hundred and 
fifty years from 1150 to 1300; for the building of 
church or cathedral had now become not only the 
work of religious zeal or patriotic enthusiasm, but also 
of poetic inspiration. The sense of beauty, which 
had been weak, through want of nurture, during the 
Dark Ages before the eleventh century, had gradu- 
ally grown stronger and stronger, till at length the 
love of beauty had become a controlling motive of ex- 
pression, and gave direction to the moral and intellect- 
ual energies called into play by religious or patriotic 
sentiment. - The mediceval ideal of beauty was, indeed, 
not less narrow than the moral ideal of the time, but 
it was not less genuine. It did not embrace the whole 
creation ; it was perverted by ascetic prepossessions 
and by superstitious fears. But men had begun to 
feel anew the pleasantness of the world, to take fresh 
delight in the flowers of the field, in the song of birds, 
in the grace of the body and the charm of human 
expression, in the splendor of colors and the play of 
lights and shadows, in the harmonies and contrasts of 
line, in symmetries of form. This reawakened sense of 
beauty, which in most men was still vague, illusory, 



RESULT OF THE STUDY OF NATURE. 29 

undefined, filled the consciousness of the artist with 
definite conceptions capable of realization in his art. 
He thus became the interpreter to itself of his own 
generation. In the fullest sympathy with his con- 
temporaries, because the sources of his inspiration 
were the natural sources of spiritual life common to 
them and to him, but from which he drew more deep- 
ly than the rest, he revealed their own inward selves, 
and enlarged the scope of their imaginings. There 
was nothing of classic idealism in his work ; it was 
modern and romantic in the sense that in it the matter 
predominated over the form. • Its moral import was, 
indeed, his chief concern ; and his work at its best 
illustrates, with peculiar simplicity and distinctness, 
the truth which has determined the character of 
all supreme artistic production — that in the highest 
forms of human expression morality and beauty are 
inseparable. ' 

The love of beauty, the charm of the beauty in the 
world, had led him to the study of nature, and the re- 
sult of this study was apparent in his work. Directly 
displayed in sculpture and in painting, it showed itself 
in architecture so far as these arts were called into its 
service ; and never had they contributed to enhance 
its power and effect to the degree in which they con- 
tributed during the great period of Gothic building. 
The efforts of the Gothic designer to conform his 
works to nature often fell short of their aim. His 
power of execution was often inferior to his concep- 



30 



CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



tion. He was an apprentice, not yet a master, in the 
rendering of the aspects of man and the outer world. 
But he rejected the conventional types of representa- 
tion transmitted from his predecessors, substituting for 
them his own fresh delineations, the expression of an 
immediate and individual sentiment. It was no won- 
der that his art touched and excited the susceptible 
feelings of simple beholders, moving them to penitence 
and tears, or to unwonted gladness and hope.* 

The field for the exercise of the arts, thus inspired 
with creative impulse, was by no means limited to the 
Church. Architecture, sculpture, and painting were 
employed in secular no less than in religious build- 
ings, in the castle of the noble and in the house of 
the burgher. t 

The spirit of art penetrated every department of life, 

* " Et videmus aliquando simplices et idiotas qui .verbis vix ad fidem 
gestorum possunt perduci, ex pictura passionis Dominicae vel aliorum 
mirabilium ita compungi, ut lachrymis testentur exteriores figuras 
cordi suo impressas." Walafrid Strabo, De Officiis Divinis, szve de 
Ecclesiastkaruvi Rcrtwi Exordiis ct Incretncniis, cap. viii. ; in Migne, 
Patrologia Cursus Completns, torn, cxiii. Walafrid Strabo wrote in the 
ninth century, but his testimony is good for a later time. 

t " It was a great period," says Sir Gilbert Scott, "and its greatness 
seemed to pervade even the most secluded districts. . . . Let us not 
imagine that the architecture of the age developed itself only in cathe- 
drals, abbeys, or churches of any kind ; all other buildings evince the 
same spirit. A barn of the thirteenth century shows the nobleness of 
the pervading style as clearly as even the cathedral itself, and what re- 
mains of their \sic\ domestic architecture tells the same tale. Every- 
thing was done well, in good taste, and in accordance with reasonable 
and practical requirements and the means at command." Lectures on 
Medicroal Architecture, vol. i. p. 203. Sir Gilbert's wide acquaintance 
with Romanesque and Gothic work in England gives value to his as- 



LACK OF CONTEMPORARY DESCRIPTION. 31 

and gave form to all the products of design. There 
is a solidarity in the arts ; they do not flourish in iso- 
lated independence. So at this time art exhibited it- 
self in the least no less than in the greatest things, in 
the articles of common use as well as of display — in 
the weaving and embroidery of stuffs ; in the shape and 
ornament of dress ; in metal-work of all sorts — the work 
of the blacksmith no less than of the goldsmith ; in ar- 
mor ; in jewelry ; in articles for the service of the table 
or the altar ; in the wood-work of the carpenter and 
the joiner ; in the calligraphy and illumination of man- 
uscripts. Whatever the hand found to do, that it did 
under the guidance of artistic fancy and feeling. 

But it was in the great church' edifice that many 
arts were united, as in no other work, in a single joint 
and indivisible product of their highest energies. From 
the pavement rich with mosaic of tile or marble, or 
inlaid with the sepulchral slabs of those who in life 
had knelt upon it, up to the cross that gleamed on 
the airy summit of the central spire, each separate 
feature, instinct with the life of art, contributed to the 
organic unity of the consummate masterpiece of crea- 
tive imagination. Religious enthusiasm, patriotic pride, 
the strongest sentiments of the community, the deep- 
est feelings of each individual, fopnd here their most 
poetic expression. - 

It might be supposed that of buildings so remark- 
able as these — buildings which occupied so large a 
place in the thoughts and labors of the generations by 



32 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

which they were erected, and in which the faith of 
the time found its most complete visible expression — 
full accounts would have come down to us from those 
who were engaged in or who witnessed their construc- 
tion. One might expect that all that related to monu- 
ments so important, by which the aspect of the land- 
scape was changed, and which formed the most prom- 
inent object in city and country, would have been de- 
scribed in detail by contemporaries who beheld them 
rise and shared in the emotions from which they pro- 
ceeded. But such is not the case.* Little informa- 
tion concerning them, compared with their social and 
historical importance, has come down to us from the 
period of which they are the most impressive and in- 
structive memorials. Such reference as is made to 
them in the annals of the times is seldom more than a 
brief and often untrustworthy record of dates, or a nar- 
rative of some miracle by which the work was favored, 
or a dry notice of some trifling incident of the con- 
struction. Even the poets fail to show sympathy with 
the popular emotion as expressed in these creations 
of the imagination. It would seem as if the intensity 
of the motive of these works interfered with attention 
to the works themselves. Most of the mediseval ro- 

* " Ce qui est rare, ce qui est merveilleux, c'est une eglise que ses 
contemporains aient regarde batir et sur laquelle ils aient bien voulu 
nous laisser des notions exactes et precises." Vitet, Etudes, " Notre- 
Dame de Noyon," p. 15. " Si Ton cherche dans le Cartulaire des ren- 
seignements relatifs a la construction de I'eglise de Notre-Dame, on est 
surpris de n'en trouver d'aucune espece." Guerard, Cartulaire de 
V Eglise Notre-Dame de Paris, torn. i. pref. § 52, p. clxvii. 



NOTICES IN THE ROMANCES. ^3 

mances did not, indeed, receive their final literary form 
till after the strong impulse of building had passed its 
height. But it is curious how little illustration they 
afford of contemporary art. Now and then, however, 
they give us a picture in which the artistic aspect of 
the time is reproduced. In one of the most popular of 
the early French romances, that of Renaut de Mon- 
tauban, the hero, after a life of adventure, goes in dis- 
guise to Cologne, and there, in order to save his soul, 
engages as a common workman on the Cathedral. 
The account of his hiring, of his labor in carrying 
stone and mortar, of the way of life of the workmen, of 
the jealousy he excites among them, and of his death 
at their hands, is full of interest in its picturesque 
detail.* In the later romance of Gerard de Roussil- 
lon there is a lonof narrative of the foundation of the 
beautiful church at Vezelay, in honor of St. Mary 
Magdalen, and of the forwarding of the building by 
the Countess Beatrice, the wife of Gerard. Like Re- 
naut, the Countess labored with her own hands, and 
in such a spirit that a miracle, of which her husband 
was witness, gave proof of the favor and of the power 
of Heaven. t But these romantic episodes do not sup- 
ply the place of connected description. 



* Renaus de Mojttauban (ed. Michelant, Stuttgart, 1862), pp. 445-450. 

t Gerart de Rossillon (ed. Francisque Michel, Paris, 1856), pp. ■z^i-T.'jd. 
The story is told at length in this Provengal version of the Romance. 
In the version in the langue d'Oc it is narrated more briefly, and with 
different circumstances; see Girart de Rossillon (ed. Mignard, Paris, 
1858), pp. 229-233. 

3 



34 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

To this general lack of full information there are a 
few notable exceptions. The Abbot Suger's vivid ac- 
count of his rebuilding of the famous Abbey Church of 
St. Denis, dedicated in 1144;* the letter of the Abbot 
Haimon concerning the building of the Church of St. 
Pierre sur Dives, t and that of the Archbishop of 
Rouen (in 1145) in regard to the emotion in his diocese 
at the time of the building of the old Cathedral at 
Chartres \% the poem of Jehan le Marchant on the 
Miracles of Our Lady in the rebuilding of the Cathe- 
dral in ii94;§ the monk Gervase's description of the 
rebuilding of Canterbury Cathedral after its destruc- 
tion by fire in 1 174II — are, each in its kind, of the high- 
est interest, as giving information concerning the mo- 
tives and the methods of the builders of the respec- 
tive works, as well as in throwing light upon the gen- 
eral spiritual conditions of the times. 

In regard to some of the great churches, the records 
of building have been preserved with more or less 

* Libellus dc consecratione ccclesicE a se adificatce, etc., in Duchesne, 
Hist. Fran. Script, torn. iv. pp. 350-359. 

t Fragments of this interesting letter are in Mabillon, Annales Ord. 
S. Bencdicti, torn. vi. pp. 393 sqq. It was first printed complete by M. 
Leopold Delisle in the Bibliotheqiie de VEcole des Chartes, 5e serie, vol. 
i., Paris, i860. 

X Mabillon, Annales Ord. S. Benedicti, torn. vi. p. 328. 

§ Le Livre des Miracles de Notre-Dame de Chartres, par Jehan Le 
Marchant. Publie pour la premiere fois par M. G. Duplessis, Chartres, 
1855. 

II Tractatus de combiistione et reparatiotie Dorobornensis ecclesice, in 
Twysden, Hist. Anglic. Script, pp. 1 285-1 303. An excellent translation 
of this important little work is given by Professor Willis in his admira- 
ble Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, London, 1845. 



LACK OF AMPLE INFORMATION. -,r 

completeness ; and when the church was the work of a 
civic community, the civic records in some instances 
afford the material for its history. But, with all these 
aids, the supply of information concerning the course, 
character, and results of the great movement of the 
human spirit which took form in the church-building 
of the Middle Ages is far less abundant than could be 
desired. 



n 

VENICE AND ST. MARK'S 



II. 

VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

No city In the world appeals more strongly to the 
poetic imagination than Venice. Her site, her people, 
her history, her institutions, her art, are all alike unique. 
Appearing first as a little group of fishermen's huts on 
a sand-bank In the midst of a waste of waters, her soli- 
tude and her humility afforded protection to successive 
bands of exiles flying from ancient cities of the main- 
land to escape from the scourge of the Northern bar- 
barians, who thronged through the passes of the East- 
ern Alps to share in the spoils of the ruined empire of 
Rome. Secure within her broad moat of waves, her 
foundations were firmly set* Rising in the dawn of 
modern Europe, she linked the tradition of the old 
civihzation to the fresh conditions of the new. In- 
dependent from the first, her people framed and ad- 
ministered their own institutions. The destiny that 
ruled her beginnings seemed, as she grew, to have 
had no element of chance, but to have been de- 
termined by foresight and wise counsel. Her posi- 



* " Haec Celebris et inclyta civitas pro pavimento mare, pro muro 
aquas maris, et pro tecto coelum habet." Durantino, De Aniplissiviis 
Laudibus Venetce Urbis (1522), p, 36 b. 



40 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

tion was unrivalled. She lay fronting the East, and 
the Adriatic opened before her a broad pathway for 
commerce and for conquest, while tributary rivers on 
either hand brought the trade of the Western main- 
land to her gates. 

In the character of her people, intelligence and en- 
ergy were combined with fancy and sentiment as in no 
other Western race. Her statesmen were the ablest, 
her merchants the most adventurous and the most 
successful, her seamen the boldest, her craftsmen the 
most skilful of their time. Her artists were quick to 
give fine expression to the new moods of the Middle 
Ages ; her gentlemen were the first in Europe, and the 
first modern ladies were Venetian. She lacked, how- 
ever, a poet. Her life and feeling found utterance in 
other modes of art. She was her own poem. 

The affection in which she was held by her people 
had the depth and intensity of a passion. The large 
spirit of national patriotism was hardly felt in Italy 
during the Middle Ages. Its place was occupied by 
a narrow local sentiment which the natural and polit- 
ical divisions of the land stimulated often to a degree 
fatal to peace, to prosperity, even to honor. But in 
Venice this local spirit was justified by the peculiar 
conditions of her existence. She was nation as well as 
city to her people. " First Venetians and then Chris- 
tians" was a saying which stood her in good stead. 
First Venetians and then Italians was the abiding sense 
of her citizens. Cut off by the sea from the mainland, 



THE COMMERCE OF VENICE. ^j 

she held herself aloof, and through all her better days 
it was her steady policy to keep herself free from entan- 
gling alliance with any of the Italian states. 

Her interests lay upon the sea, and she sought to 
extend her dominion over the islands and coasts of the 
Adriatic and the ^gean, over Crete and Cyprus, and 
to obtain settlement and power still farther east, rather 
than to increase her Italian territory. Her close re- 
lations with the East affected the character and tem- 
per of her people.* The commerce with distant and 
strange lands developed in the Venetians not only fore- 
sight and gravity of counsel, strength of purpose, steadi- 
ness of will, firmness in peril, and calmness in success, 
but also the love of adventure, the taste for splendor, 
the sense of color, and a capacity for romantic emo- 
tion. The charm and mystery of the East pervaded 
the atmosphere of Venice. Mere trade became poetic 
while dealing with the spices of Arabia, the silks of 
Damascus, the woven stuffs of Persia, the pearls of 
Ceylon, or the rarer products of the wonderful regions 
whence travellers like Marco Polo brought back true 
stories that rivalled the inventions of Arabian story- 
tellers. The ships of Venice were the signiors 
and rich burghers of the sea. Refinement increased 
with wealth; and while the feudal nobles of the main- 

* The trade of Venice with the East began very early. The Monk 
of St. Gall, in his account of Charlemagne, written near the end of the 
ninth century, speaks of the Venetians in the days of Charlemagne 
bringing " de transmarinis partibus omnes Orientalium divitias." De 
Gestis Caroli Magni, lib. ii. cap. xxvii, 



A2 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

land were still half barbaric in thought and custom, the 
civic nobles of Venice had acquired a culture that iso- 
lated them still more than they were separated by po- 
sition and material interest from the natives of other 
cities. 

Moreover, all that the Venetians acquired, whether 
of wealth or culture, was concentrated within the limits 
of their single city, and became an ever-accumulating 
heirloom transmitted from one generation to another. 
Seldom did civil discords and tumults, such as many a 
time devastated every other city of Italy, disturb her 
tranquillity; no factions of Guelf and GhibeUine, of Neri 
and Bianchi, divided her people into hostile camps; 
no army of barbarian invaders or of jealous neighbors 
ever sacked her houses or wasted her stores ; no siege 
ever distressed her. And thus she grew from age to 
age in beauty as in strength. Her citizens were the 
first people of the modern world to acquire confidence 
in the perpetuity not only of the State, but of their per- 
sonal possessions. Secure under just laws against do- 
mestic oppression, safe within the intrenchment lines 
of the lagoons, they built for themselves homes sur- 
passing in stateliness and in beauty any homes of pri- 
vate men that the world had seen — homes not only 
correspondent to their own love of splendor and of 
comfort, but to the lofty genius of the city.* 

* The Casa Dario on the Grand Canal, near San Gregorio, built about 
i486, one of the most elegant of the smaller palaces of the Renais- 
sance, bears on its fagade the characteristic inscription " URBIS GENIO 

JOANNES DARIUS." 



FAITH OF VENETIANS IN VENICE. 43 

The perpetuity of Venice was a fixed part of the 
patriotic pride of her people. " Imperium stabile, per- 
petuum, et mansurum," says Sabellico, the first of the 
official historians of the republic ; and Sansovino, writ- 
ing seventy years later, in the middle of the sixteenth 
century, begins his description of the government of 
Venice with these confident words : " The Republic of 
Venice, surpassing all other states in grandeur, nobil- 
ity, wealth, and every quality that may conduce to the 
felicity of man, hath divers members, all well ordered, 
as is plainly evident, since through their good disposi- 
tion it hath endured for one thousand one hundred 
and sixty- five years, and gives sign, moreover, that it 
will endure forever." * Forever is the vainest word of 
man, but the glories of Venice might well seem sub- 
stantial, permanent, secure. Who could foresee that 
the day was soon to come when but " gleaning grapes 
should be left in her, as the shaking of an olive-tree, 
two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, 
four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof," 
and that it was only in memory and imagination she 
was to endure forever ? 

With such faith in their city, and such reason for it, 
and with affection for her quickened by the constant 
appeal of her material beauty, it was not strange that 

* F. Sansovino, Del Governo de Regjiz et dclle Republichc. Venetia, 
1567, p. 169. All her writers celebrated the city "quae omnium bo- 
norum amplitudine atque ubertate florescit in dies ;" " domina canta- 
tissima," . . . "qua nihil majus, nihil excellentius, nihil sanctius in toto 
orbe reperiri potest." 



44 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

in the imaginations of her people Venice became per- 
sonified as a half-divine ideal figure. She is the only 
city of modern times that has shared, and has de- 
served to share, this distinction with Rome and the 
other great cities of the ancient world. A mytholog- 
ic legend concerning her origin and destiny gradu- 
ally formed itself, in which Christian and pagan sym- 
bols were curiously intermingled, and which the Re- 
naissance found half ready to its hand when, in ac- 
cordance with its general spirit, it proceeded to intro- 
duce the deities of Olympus, in harmonious co-opera- 
tion with the Virgin and the saints, for the protection 
and exaltation of the favored city. In almost every 
other city of Italy — in Verona, in Mantua, in Florence, 
in Siena, in Padua — the popular tradition, cherished 
alike by chroniclers, poets, and artists, connected the 
origin or the legendary fortunes of the town with 
royal, republican, or imperial Rome. Rome filled the 
imagination of medieval Italy. Her eagle still 

" Governo 1' mondo li di mano in mano." 

She was mistress of all Italy except Venice. Here 
she had no dominion. 

Christian to her core, devout in spirit, her history 
abounding in miracles, her imagination touched by do- 
mestic legends of saints and relics, Venice was yet as 
independent in her ecclesiastical relations as in her 
civil administration. The authority of the Pope, re- 
vered and acknowledged in all matters of faith, was 



ST. MARK'S RELATION TO VENICE. ^^ 

steadily and successfully resisted in all matters that 
pertained to her own domain. She chose her own 
bishops; her priests were her own citizens. She ad- 
mitted no divided claim to allegiance, and would en- 
dure no subordination of her authority, even in the 
Church, to that of Rome. Her Church was Venetian, 
and not Roman, and that it was so only increased the 
fervor and constancy of her piety. 

In the very heart of this unique and splendid city, 
and worthy of the city of which it was the most sacred 
and superb adornment, rose the church of her patron 
saint. Her treasure was lavished here, and her wealth 
consecrated; here her piety, her pride, her imagina- 
tion, found expression, and here was the symbol of her 
power. It was under the banner that bore the winged 
lion of St. Mark that she won her victories and extend- 
ed her dominion. The saint to her was more than St. 
George to England, or St. Denis to France, or St. John 
the Baptist to Florence, or St. Peter to Rome. He was 
specially her own ; for, according to the tradition which 
she cherished, she had been destined by the will of 
Heaven, long before she rose from the sea, to receive 
and guard the body of the saint, and to flourish under 
his effectual protection. She believed, though the leg- 
end was never received by the Church Universal, that 
St. Mark had been sent by St. Peter as apostle to 
Aquileja, and that on his return to . Rome his bark, 
driven by the wind, came to a landing on the low isl- 
and which was the first site of the City of the Lagoons. 



46 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

Here, while he was rapt In ecstasy, an angel of the 
Lord appeared to him and said, " Pax tibi, Marce. Hie 
requiescet corpus tuum." (Peace be with thee, Mark. 
Here shall thy body rest.) The angel went on to 
prophesy that a devout and faithful people would here, 
after many years, build a marvellous city (mirificam 
urbeni), and would deserve to possess the body of the 
saint, and that through his merits and prayers they 
would be greatly blessed.* 

St. Mark was martyred and buried in Alexandria. 
Centuries passed. Venice had founded herself solid- 
ly upon the sand heaps of the Rivo Alto and the salt 
marshes around it. She was gaining consciousness of 
independence and strength, and her people had estab- 
lished for themselves a settled social and political or- 
der under which they were prospering, when, accord- 
ing to another popular legend, in the year 829, two 
Venetian merchants, Buono, Tribune of Malamocco, 
and Rustico, of Torcello, sailing in the Mediterranean 
with their vessels, for the purposes of trade, were driven 
by stress of weather to take harbor in the port of 
Alexandria. There was an edict at this time forbid- 
ding the Venetians to have any dealings with the Sar- 
acens, or to repair to their ports. The Venetian mer- 

* Andreae Danduli Chrom'con, in Muratori, Rcr. Ital. Script, xii. col. 
14. This chronicle of the Doge Andrea Dandolo, who died in 1354, is 
one of the chief and best sources of information concerning the early 
history of Venice. " A man early great among the great of Venice," 
says Mr. Ruskin, " to whose history we owe half of what we know of 
her former fortunes." Stones of Ve}iice,\o\. ii. ch. iv. He was the friend 
and correspondent of Petrarch. 



ST. MARK'S BODY AT ALEXANDRIA. 47 

chants, compelled to seek safety in Alexandria, visited 
the church in which the bones of St. Mark were pre- 
served and venerated. It happened that at this time a 
certain Regulus, a ruler over the Saracens, was build- 
ing a splendid palace in the city of Cairo, and was seek- 
ing for columns and slabs of marble for its adornment, 
taking them from sacred no less than profane edifices 
The guardians of the church where the relics of St 
Mark were worshipped were in fear lest it might be de 
spoiled and desecrated, and the Venetian traders, find 
ing them depressed and anxious, proposed to them se 
cretly that they should allow the body of the saint to 
be carried to Venice, where the angel of the Lord had 
prophesied it would find its final resting-place. This 
they did in the hope that by carrying home so precious 
a treasure their disobedience of the edict against visit- 
ing the ports of the Saracens might be atoned for and 
forgiven. After long and doubtful debate, Staurazio, a 
monk, and Teodoro, a priest of the church, consented 
to the proposal. But they feared the wrath of the peo- 
ple if the removal of the relics should be discovered. 
The body of the saint, wound in silken wrappings of 
which the edges were sealed, lay within a shrine. To 
conceal its removal, the wrappings were cut open be- 
hind, and the body of Santa Claudia was artfully sub- 
stituted for that of St. Mark ; so that when, attracted 
by a sweet and pungent odor diffused from the dis- 
placed relics, the faithful flocked to the altar, no trace 
of the pious fraud was visible. In the darkness of 



48 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

night and the fury of a miraculous tempest, the body, 
placed in a basket and covered with leaves upon which 
was laid a quantity of pork, was carried from the church 
to one of the vessels. Certain officers of the Saracens, 
seeing the Christians bearing away this load at this 
strange time, were fain to know what it was, and, open- 
ing the basket and finding the swine's flesh, turned 
from it in disgust and allowed the sacred burden to pass 
on its way. The voyage to Venice witnessed many 
miracles, which gave assurance of the willingness of 
the saint to be transferred to his destined abode. Par- 
don for their disobedience was readily granted to 
the merchants in consideration of the priceless gift 
which they brought, and the Doge Giustiniano Par- 
tecipazio went, accompanied by the clergy, to the 
vessel, and with greatest reverence bore the holy rel- 
ics to the ducal chapel, where they were deposited 
till a more fitting resting-place could be prepared for 
them.* 

* Ac/a Sattctonim, Aprilis, torn. iii. April. 25, pp. 353-355. Danduli 
Chronicon, col. 172. Marin Sanudo, Vite de DucJii di Venezia, in Mura- 
tori, Rer. Hal. Script, torn. xxii. col. 452. The removal of the body of the 
saint through the streets of Alexandria in the midst of the storm, and 
the rescue of a Saracen seaman from drowning by the interposition 
of the saint on the voj^age to Venice, are the subjects of two splendid 
pictures by Tintoretto, alike imaginative in the conception and mag- 
nificent in the rendering of the scenes. Of the last, Boschini, in his 
precious little volume Le RiccJie Minere della Pittiira Vencziana, says, 
what was true till Turner painted, " Chi cio non vede, non sa cosa s:a 
spav^ento di mare." These pictures were painted originally for the 
Confraternity of St. Mark, and, together with Tintoretto's more gener- 
ally noted work, the so-called Miracle of the Slave, adorned the walls 
of the Scuola grande di San Marco. " Truly," says Boschini, " neither 



THE FIRST CHURCH OF ST. MARK. ^g 

The Doge at once began the construction of a new 
church, but he had hardly put his hand to it before his 
death, in the same year; and the work was left to be 
carried on by his brother Giovanni, who succeeded him 
in the dogeship.* 

This first Church of St. Mark, erected about 829, 
stood for nearly one hundred and fifty years. One 
day in August, 976, a long -smothered hatred of the 
Doge Pietro Candiano broke out in open tumult. His 
palace was surrounded, the houses near it were set on 
fire, and the flames, reaching the palace, drove the 
Doge to take shelter in the church ; but the fire soon 
seized upon this also, and the Doge, seeking safety in 
flight, was set upon by his enemies at the portal and 
barbarously murdered. The flames spread fast, and 
not till palace and church and more than three hun- 



Tintoretto nor all the art of painting could surpass what is seen in this 
School." The two pictures first mentioned are now in the Palazzo 
Reale, the third is in the Accademia. 

* In regard to this edifice, and in general in regard to the history of 
the church down to the beginning of the fifteenth century, no original 
documents exist. Frequent conflagrations, together with the ignorance 
and carelessness of the keepers of the ancient archives, were the cause 
of the loss of records which would have been of great interest, as illus- 
trating not only the story of the church, but that of the arts, in Venice. 
A few brief notices in chronicles, mostly of late date, and such evi- 
dence as the existing church affords in regard to the original con- 
struction, are the only sources from which knowledge of its early char- 
acter is to be gained. Such facts as are known are to be found collect- 
ed in Moninne7iti Artistici e Storici delle Provhicie Venete descritti dalla 
Commis^zoiie, etc., Milano, 1859. This valuable report was drawn up 
by the Marchese Pietro Selvatico and Signor Cesare Foucard. Mothes, 
in his Geschichte dcr Baitkunst imd Bildhauerei Venedz^s (Leipzig, 1859), 
gives a good summary of the history of the church. 

4 



CO VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

dred houses had been destroyed did they cease their 
work.* 

One of the first cares of the successor of Candiano, 
Pietro Orseolo, was the rebuilding {recreare is the word 
used by the chronicler) of palace and church. There 
is no account of the character or progress of the work ; 
but about seventy years later Domenico Contarini, who 
was Doge from 1042 to 105 1, began to remodel the 
church upon a new design, reconstructing the edifice, 
in the essential features of its plan, such as it now ex- 
ists. The building begun by him was completed by 
his successor, Domenico Selvo, in the year 1071, and 
artists were employed to cover its domes and vaults 
with the splendid adornment of mosaics " after the 
Greek manner." The phrase of the chronicler is sig- 
nificant; for though to him it meant merely the man- 
ner of the degenerate Greeks of Constantinople, yet, 
in truth, their manner was an inheritance — wasted now, 
and scanty indeed, still a true inheritance — from those 
Greek artists of the ancient time who had carved the 
bass-reliefs of the Parthenon or designed the pattern 
for the embroidered peplus of Athena. 

The church was complete, but its consecration was 
still delayed. Ever since the fire of 976, for now a 



* Johannes Diaconus, Chron. Venetian, in Pertz, Mon. Script, torn. vii. 
p. 52. This Chronicle, formerly known as the Chronicle of Sagortiino, is 
the work of a contemporary of these events. The author was chaplain 
of the Doge Pietro Orseolo II., 991-1009. He writes with intelligence, 
as one who saw things in the world with his own eyes, and not from 
cloister windows. 



RECOVERY OF THE BODY OF THE SAINT. rj 

hundred years, the body of St. Mark had disappeared. 
This was occasion, says the Doge Andrea Dandolo in 
his Chronicle, "of lamentation to the clergy, and of 
great depression to the laity." It was not to be be- 
lieved that the sacred treasure, the palladium of the 
city, destined for it by the decree of Heaven, had per- 
ished. Without it the new church must remain vacant 
of its chief dignity. It could not be the divine will 
that Venice should be deprived of her own special 
saint. Now that at length the church was finished 
and adorned worthily to contain such a treasure, it 
was resolved, in June, 1094, to keep a fast in the 
city, and to make a most solemn procession through 
the church, with devout supplication to the Almighty 
that he would be pleased to reveal the place of con- 
cealment of the sacred relics. And lo ! while the pro- 
cession was moving, of a sudden a light broke from 
one of the piers, a sound of cracking was heard, bricks 
fell upon the pavement, and there, within the pier, was 
beheld the body of the saint, with the arm stretch- 
ed out, as if he had moved it to make the opening 
in the masonry. On one finger was a ring of gold, 
which, after others had tried in vain, was drawn off 
by Giovanni Dolfino, one of the counsellors of the 
Doge. 

The joy of the people was now as great as their 
grief had been before. The miracle quickened their 
devotion and excited their fancy, and on the 8th of 
October following, " the church being dedicated to God, 



C2 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

the reverend body was laid away in a secret place, the 
Doge, the Primate, and the Procurator alone knowing 
where."* 

The design of the new church, both in its general 
plan and in its details, was not copied from any exist- 
ing edifice. It gave evidence, in its conception, of a 
quality characteristic of Venetian art at all times and 
in all departments — the quality of independent and 
original treatment of elements derived from foreign 
sources. This is a distinguishing trait of the artistic 
races of the world, and this, it is which gives Venice a 
higher rank in the history of the arts than that which 
any other mediaeval Italian city can claim. Florence, 
indeed, at times presses her hard ; but even the Flor- 
entine artists were less inspired by the spirit which 
remodels traditional types of beauty into new forms, 
adapted to give expression to the special genius of a 
people of definite originality, than the great masters of 
Venetian architecture and painting. Whatever Venice 
touched she stamped with her own impress. She 
studied under Byzantine teachers, but was not con- 
tent merely to copy their works. She partook of 
the inheritance of Roman tradition, but improved 
upon and modified its rules. She felt the strong 
influence of the Gothic spirit — no other Italian city 

* This secrecy was doubtless adopted in order to secure the body 
against the risk of being a second time stolen. Thefts of relics were 
not uncommon in the Middle Ages. The wonder-working relics of a 
famous saint were the source of great profit to the church where they 
were preserved. 



■i 



PLAN OF ST. MARK'S. ^3 

felt it so strbngly ; but, instead of yielding her own 
originality to the powerful compulsion of the North- 
ern style, she accepted its principles, not as ultimate 
canons of a fixed system, but as vital and plastic ele- 
ments for her own invention to work with ; and created 
a fresh and beautiful Gothic style of her own. 

The architect of St. Mark's is unknown, but that he 
was a Venetian is evident from the exhibition of this 
prime trait of Venetian genius in his work. Constan- 
tinople and Rome furnished him with separate ele- 
ments of his design, which he fused into a composition 
neither Byzantine nor Romanesque, unexampled hith- 
erto, only to be called Venetian. Adopting the Greek 
cross for his ground-plan, he placed over the point of 
intersection of its arms a central dome, forty-two feet 
in diameter, connected by pendentives with four great 
arches that sprang from four piers of vast dimensions. 
Over each arm of the cross rose a similar but some- 
what smaller cupola; each cupola, including the cen- 
tral one, having a range of small windows at its base, 
which seemed to lighten its pressure upon its supports. 
Through the piers ran archways in both directions, so 
as to open a narrow aisle on each side of the nave and 
transept. The level of the eastern arm of the cross 
was raised above that of the body of the church to 
give space to a crypt beneath it, where, below the 
high - altar, the relics of St. Mark w^ere laid in their 
secret repose. A semicircular apse terminated the 
eastern end of the church, stretching out beyond the 



e . VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

aisles, which were closed externally by a flat wall, but 
shaped within into small, also semicircular, apses. The 
material of the structure was brick, but the whole 
surface of the building, within and without, was to be 
covered with precious incrustations of mosaic or of 
marble. 

The form of the cross, the domes, the incrusted dec- 
oration, were all borrowed from the East, and all had 
their prototypes in Byzantine buildings. But the crypt 
and the apses, and many of the details, were of Roman- 
esque character; and the diverse elements of the two 
styles mingled here in harmonious combination.* 

How far the adorning of the church with mosaic and 
marble had advanced at the time of its dedication in 
1094 cannot be told ; but the work was not of a nature 
to be speedily accomplished, and the twelfth century 
may have been drawing to its close before the com- 
pletion of the elaborate and splendid covering of the 
walls. The consistent and steady carrying-out of a 
system of decoration so costly and so magnificent is 
a proof of the interest of the Venetians in the work, 
and of the reality of that piety which was one of the 
constant boasts of the republic. The church was prop- 
erly the Chapel of the Doges, and, as such, under their 
immediate charge; but though successive Doges de- 
voted large sums to its construction and adornment, 

* Some interesting remarks on the Byzantine elements in St. Mark's 
are to be found in M. F. de Verneilh's remarkable work on L' Architec- 
ture Byzantine en France. Paris, 1851. 



MATERIALS FOR THE EDIFICE. 



55 



the chief cost was doubtless defrayed by the offerings 
of the citizens, to whom, year by year, it became more 

^ and more an object of pride, and who saw in it the 
image of the faith and the power of the State itself. It 
became by degrees the centre of Venetian life, the type 
of the glory of Venice. And thus while the mosaics 
of its vaults and domes display the religious concep- 
tions of the age and the sentiment and skill of a long 
succession of nameless artists, in like manner the slabs 
of marble and alabaster that cover pier and wall, the 

' multitudinous carvings, and the priceless columns of 
marble exhibit no less plainly the persistent zeal of sea- 
going traders and men-at-arms in contributing for the 
adornment of their church the gains of their commerce 
or the spoils of their conquests. From far and near — 
from the ruins of Aquileja or from the desolate palace 
of Spalato, from the temples of ancient cities along the 
coast of Italy or Asia Minor, from Athens or Constan- 
tinople, from the islands of the y^gean, from Sicily or 
Africa — were brought shafts and capitals, fragments of 
sculpture, blocks of colored stone, to be offered for the 
work of the church. It is a most striking indication of 
the prevalence of a genuine artistic spirit at Venice, 
not only that these objects should have been so widely 
sought, but that the successive master-builders should 
have had the genius to make such use of this medley 
of materials, supplied to them irregularly and without 
order, as to produce not a mere variegated patchwork 
of carved and colored ornament, but a skilful, harmoni- 



5 5 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

ous composition, in which each detail seems to be cal- 
culated in relation to the general effect with hardly less 
intention and appropriateness than if all had been so 
designed from the beginning. Their success, however, 
lay in the fact that they worked upon a principle whol- 
ly diverse from those which controlled the builders of 
Gothic structures — a principle which subordinated the 
effects of pure line and constructive form to those 
of color. The church was designed to afford broad, 
unbroken masses of wall for colored surface decora- 
tion, and the elaborate multiplicities of form peculiar 
to Gothic architecture were altogether unattempted. 
There have been no such colorists in architecture as 
the Venetians. It was as special a gift to them as the 
perfect sense of form was to the Athenians. Gifts 
such as these, limited to single races, to defined epochs, 
are not to be accounted for by any enumeration of ex- 
ternal conditions. Their sources lie concealed in un- 
discoverable regions. But their influence is to be 
traced in all the most characteristic expressions of the 
race, and may be perceived often in remote and varied 
fields of thought and of action. They appear not mere- 
ly in art and manners and language, but their subtle 
influence penetrates into those relations of private or 
public conduct in which the imagination claims an 
interest. Of all the legacies of Athens to the world, 
none, perhaps, is more precious than the teaching of 
the intellectual value of form and proportion ; of the 
many heirlooms that Venice has bequeathed, one of 



WEST FRONT OF ST. MARK'S. cy 

the best is the doctrine of the refined and noble use of 
color. 

Though the original plan of the main building seems 
to have been that of the simple Greek cross, yet, not 
long after its walls were erected, an addition to it was 
begun, by which the western arm was to be enclosed 
within an atritim, or vestibule, upon its northern side 
and western end, and on its southern side with a chapel 
dedicated to St. John the Baptist and an apartment for 
the sacred treasury of the church.* This addition, in 
the course of the twelfth century, gave to the building 
that magnificent facade which is the most striking and 
original characteristic of its exterior. Upon the adorn- 
ment of this facade the resources of Venetian wealth 
and art were lavished. It was enriched not only with 
precious marbles, but with carvings and mosaics, till it 
was made the most splendid composition of colored ar- 
chitecture that Europe has beheld. No building so 
costly or so sumptuous had been erected since the fall 
of the Empire ; and none more impressive, in propor- 
tion to its size, none more picturesque, has been built 
in later times. And yet it is this unique fagade, to 
which the hand of time has given the last touch of 

* It is possible, indeed, that the hall at the western end, with its triple 
portal, supporting a gallery, may have been part of the original design. 
It appears certain that it was constructed before the northern or south- 
ern additions. The exact dates are not to be ascertained, nor are they 
of much consequence, for the whole work belongs to the great period 
of creative activity and imaginative design throughout a large part of 
Europe, extending from the close of the eleventh to the beginning or 
middle of the thirteenth century, 107 5-1 225. 



5 8 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

beauty, in the hue which only years can bestow, that, 
at this moment, as these pages are going through the 
press, is threatened with destruction, under the name 
of restoration. Italy plays the part in these days of 
the serving-maid of Aladdin, and over and over again 
is cheated into giving up her old magical treasure by 
the allurement of bright new brass. Florence, Perugia, 
Siena, Rome — all have suffered irreparably in loss of 
beauty and in historic dignity through the wanton 
work of that modern spirit of vulgarity which has 
neither reverence for the past nor regard for the future. 
But there has been nothing worse than this proposal 
to ruin " those golden walls that East and West once 
joined to build." The protest against this special dese- 
cration now making itself heard in Europe may be ef- 
fectual to prevent it, but there is need of constant vigi- 
lance and effort to protect the most venerable monu- 
ments from the rude hand of the professional despoiler. 
The church was not merely picturesque, but pictorial. 
The system of mosaic decoration with which arches, 
vaults, and domes were covered was intended not mere- 
ly for ornament, but as a series of pictures for religious 
instruction. The Scriptures were here displayed in im- 
perishable painting before the eyes of those who could 
not read the written Word. The church became thus 
not only a sanctuary wherein to pray, to confess, to be 
absolved, but also a school-house for the teaching of the 
faithful.* It was like "a vast illuminated missal," its 
* A description of the mosaics, with their various inscriptions, is to 



MOSAICS AND INSCRIPTIONS. 



59 



pages filled with sacred designs painted on gold. One 
of the inscriptions on its walls truly declares in rude 
rhyme — 

" HISTORIIS, FORMA, AURO, SPECIE TABULARUM, 
HOC TEMPLUM MARCI FORE DECUS OMNIUM ECCLESIARUM." 

The scheme of its pictorial decoration includes the 
story of the race of man, his fall and redemption ; the 
life and passion of the Saviour, and the works of his 
apostles and saints. 

The ceiling of the atrium, or fore-court, of the temple 
was naturally, according to the order of thought of its 
designers, occupied with subjects from^ the Old Dispen- 
sation ; and there appears to have been an obvious and 
impressive intention, as has been pointed out by Mr. 
Ruskin,* in the conclusion of the series with the mira- 
cle of the fall of manna. It was to direct the thous^hts 
of the disciple to the saying " Your fathers did eat 
manna and are dead," and to bring to his remembrance 
that living bread whereof " if any man eat, he shall live 
forever." Entering the central door of the church, he 
would see before him, dim in the distance of the east- 
be found in a book of great value to the student of the church, and now- 
rare, called La Chiesa Ducale di S. Marco [da G. Meschinello]. Venezia, 
1753, 4 vols. sm. 4to. For a plan exhibiting the order of the mosaics, 
see Kugler, Handbook of Paint i7tg. London, 1851, i. 74. 

* I am glad of the opportunity which the mention of Mr. Ruskin's 
name affords me to refer to his Stones of Venice, and his recent St. 
Mark's Rest, as the books from which a better acquaintance with the 
qualities of Venetian art and of Venetian character may be gained than 
from all others besides. The dry bones of history are changed to a 
body with a living soul by the inspiration of his genius. 



5o VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

ern end, the mighty figure of the Saviour throned in 
glory, and uttering the words — 

"SUM REX CUNCTORUM, CARO'FACTUS AMORE REORUM, 
NE DESPERETIS VENIiE DUM TEMPUS HABETIS." 

Then, turning and looking upward to the wall above 
the door by which he had entered, the worshipper would 
behold the same figure, with the Virgin on one side and 
St. Mark on the other, Christ himself holding open upon 
his knee the Book of Life, on the pages of which is 
written " I am the door ; by me if any man enter in, he 
shall be saved ;" and above, on the moulding of red mar- 
ble around the mosaic, were the words " I am the gate 
of life ; enter through me ye who are mine." (" Janua 
sum vitas ; per me mea membra venite.") 

It was thus that Venice received within the church 
of her patron saint the followers of the faith of which 
she boasted herself the bulwark.* 

At the beginning of the twelfth century St. Mark's 
was essentially complete. But such a building was not 
erected by contract, with the stipulation that it should 
be finished at a certain date. It was not, indeed, re- 
garded as a work that admitted of definite conclusion, 
but rather as one to be continually in hand, to be made 
more excellent from generation to generation, the con- 
stant care of the State and of the people, an object of 
unceasing interest and of endless increase in beauty 
and adornment. There was never a time when some 
one of the arts was not adding to its embellishment. 

* " Sempre 1' antemurale della Cristianita " was her own claim. 



CHANGE IN VENETIAN TASTE. ^j 

Of much that was done no record remains ; but the his- 
tory of the building can in part be traced from its own 
walls, in part from written records. During the twelfth 
century the Campanile was carried up above all the 
other towers of Venice, and from that time has been 
the most conspicuous signal of the city by sea or by 
land. It stands, after the common Italian fashion, de- 
tached from the church, with whose low domes and 
enriched arcades its own simple and stern vertical lines 
are a vigorous and picturesque contrast.* For at least 
two centuries (i 125-1350) the structures annexed to the 
main body of the church, and forming a part of it as 
seen from without, including the baptistery, the treas- 
ury, and the fore-court, or vestibule, were slowly advan- 
cing towards completion and receiving their rich casing 
of marble and mosaic. All this work corresponded 
in general style with that of the church, and was in 
harmony with its general design. But meanwhile a 
great change was going on in the taste of the Vene- 
tians. The influences of the East were losing ground 
before those of the West, and the Byzantine elements 
in Venetian architecture were giving place to those of 
Gothic art. It was about the end of the fourteenth 
century, or perhaps in the early years of the fifteenth, 
that the incongruous but picturesque and fanciful 
crowd of pinnacles and tabernacles, of crockets, finials, 

* The Campanile frequently suffered from strokes of lightning and 
from fire. In 1489, after its summit had been shattered by lightning, it 
was restored, and since then has remained essentially unaltered. 



52 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

and canopies with pointed arches, which is in such 
striking opposition to the older and simpler forms of 
the building, was set up on the church. These archi- 
tectural decorations enhance the impression of variety 
and wealth of adornment, they give a strange and 
complex character to the facade, but they serve no 
constructive purpose : they are mere external decora- 
tion; and though their effect is brilliant and surpris- 
ing, it is not in keeping with the scheme of the earlier 
builders. Intended but to increase the richness of 
the front, they have, indeed, a real significance as 
marking a change in the moral temper of Venice, and 
a loss of fineness in her perceptions of fitness and of 
beauty. She was growing luxurious, sensual, and prod- 
igal. A century earlier she had known how to use the 
forms of Gothic architecture with dignity, and with im- 
agination all the more powerful for being held firmly 
in restraint. But this ornamentation of St. Mark's indi- 
cated by its wantonness the beginning of a new epoch 
of Venetian art, in which architecture, sculpture, and 
painting, after having long united their powers to ex- 
press the sentiment and faith of a high-spirited com- 
munity, were to become the ministers to its ostentation 
and the servants of the luxury and display of private 
citizens. 

The moral history of Venice for five hundred years 
is indelibly recorded on the walls of the church, the 
decoration of which had been the chief task of her arts ; 
the arts are incorruptible witnesses, and form and color 



POPULAR ASSEMBLIES IN ST. MARK'S. g^ 

are undeniable indications of spiritual conditions. The 
testimony of mosaics and marbles concerning the char- 
acter and aims of the Venetians corresponds with and 
is confirmed by the less instinctive evidence of the in- 
scriptions set in the walls or engraved on the monu- 
ments of the dead buried within the church. 

St. Mark's, the chapel of the doges, was used, not for 
strictly religious services and ceremonies alone, but 
served as the gathering-place of the people when great 
affairs were to be determined, and the Doge saw fit to 
summon the citizens to hear and to decide by their 
vote what course should be followed. There was no 
other place so fitting for public transactions of Impor- 
tance, for which the blessing and guidance of Heaven 
were to be sought by the powerful intercession of the 
saint. Here, too, each Doge, upon his election by the 
council, was presented before an assemblage of the peo- 
ple, called together by the ringing of the bells, that the 
choice might be confirmed by the voices of the com- 
mon citizens. " We have chosen this man Doge, if so 
it please you,"* were the words with which their con- 
sent was asked, and It was seldom that the people had 
reason not to be pleased with the choice. Then, before 
all the people, the new Doge, kneeling at the high-altar, 

* This form lasted till the election of Francesco Foscari, in 1423, 
when it was disused, all semblance of a popular element in the State 
having by this time disappeared. " Suppose the people were to say 
No ; what would it matter?" asked the Grand Chancellor. "Let us 
therefore only say, We have chosen this man Doge." See Sanudo, Vite 
de Dicchi, 966, E. 



64 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

was invested by the Primate with the ducal mantle, and 
received from his hands the red banner of St. Mark, the 
triumphant standard of the republic. Near the door 
by which the Doge entered the church from his palace, 
above the altar of St. Clement, was an inscription in let- 
ters of gold, addressed to the Doge himself ; it was the 
monition of Venice to him : 

" DILIGE lUSTITIAM, SUA CUNCTIS REDDITO lURA : PAUPER CUM 
VIDUA, PUPILLUS ET ORPHANUS, O DUX, TE SIBI PATRONUM SPE- 
RANT. PIUS OMNIBUS ESTO : NON TIMOR AUT ODIUM VEL AMOR NEC 
TE TRAHAT AURUM. 

" UT FLOS CASURUS, DUX, ES, CINERESQUE FUTURUS, 
ET VELUT ACTURUS, POST MORTEM SIC HABITURUS." 

" Love justice, render their rights unto all : let the 
poor man and the widow, the ward and the orphan, O 
Doge, hope for a guardian in thee. Be pious towards 
all. Let not fear, nor hate, nor love, nor gold betray 
thee. As a flower shalt thou fall. Doge ; dust shalt thou 
become; and as shall have been thy deeds, so, after 
death, shall thy guerdon be." 

The close connection of palace and church was the 
type of the connection between the politics and the re- 
ligion of the State. There was no divorce between 
them in theory. The men who founded, built up, and 
administered the republic were, with few exceptions, 
men not merely pious, but in a noble sense religious. 
During the centuries of the splendor and power of Ven- 
ice, a standard of honesty, uprightness, and steady jus- 
tice in the conduct of public affairs was maintained by 
her superior to that of any other mediaeval State. The 



INSCRIPTIONS IN ST. MARK'S. ge 

qualities which distinguished the private deahngs of her 
citizens were displayed in her public administration. 
Her merchants were men of honor, who valued their 
word. They knew that their prosperity and that of 
their city depended on the confidence inspired by their 
integrity. The habit of honest dealing became a rul- 
ing principle in Venetian character. There were cheats 
and thieves and traitors at Venice as well as elsewhere, 
but there was no laxity towards fraud, and the Venetian 
ideal of character was one in which honesty and justice 
were the first elements. The Doge Vitale Faliero, in 
whose time St. Mark's was consecrated, died in 1096, and 
was buried in the portico of the church. Upon his tomb, 
enriched with mosaics of the Saviour, the Virgin, and 
the archangels of the Last Judgment, is an inscription 
of which the first lines render the old Venetian ideal : 

" MORIBUS INSIGNIS, TITULIS CELEBERRIME DIGNIS, 
CULTOR HONESTATIS, DUX OMNIMOD^ PROBITATIS," * 

The evidence of epitaphs, however doubtful as re- 
gards the character of special individuals, is trustwor- 

* Close by the tomb of this Doge is that of the young wife of his suc- 
cessor, Vitale Michele. She died in the first year of the 12th century, 
and the inscription which commemorates her virtues gives us a con- 
ception of the Venetian ideal of the womanly character at that early 
time. This record of one of the long train of fair Venetian women, 
deficient as it is in literary art, but with the grace of simplicity, adds an 
association of tenderness to the historic memories of St. Mark's : 
" Cultrix vera Dei, cultrix et pauperiei ; 

Sic subnixa Deo quo frueretur eo ; 

Comis in affatu, nullis onerosa ducatu ; 

Vultu mitis erat, quod foris intus erat. 

Calcavit luxum, suffugit quemque tumultum 

Ad strepitum nullum cor tulit ipsa suum." 

5 



56 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. . 

thy in respect to the quahties honored by the pubhc. 
Through all the period of the best life of Venice, from 
the eleventh to the fourteenth century, the virtues of 
probity and justice are constantly cited as chief titles 
to honor of the dead. 

" Justus, purus, castus, mitis, cuique placebat " is the 
praise of the Doge Sebastiano Ziani, who died in 1 1 78. 
It was while this just, pure, chaste, and mild man was 
Dosfe that St. Mark's was the scene of one of the most 
striking incidents in Venetian annals. So deeply im- 
pressed was the popular imagination by the nature of 
the transaction and the personages that took part in it, 
that a fanciful legend concerning it sprang up and so 
flourished, with the aid of the Church and of the arts, as 
for centuries to obscure the real facts of history. Dur- 
ing the twenty years' strife between Frederic Barba- 
rossa and the Pope Alexander III. — a strife which dis- 
tracted the whole Christian world — Venice, though 
cajoled and threatened by either power in turn, had 
maintained an independent neutrality. At length, after 
long and difficult negotiations, the Doge, a man trusted 
and skilled in affairs, succeeded in prevailing upon the 
Pope and the Emperor to meet in Venice, where terms 
of accord were settled upon between them. It was 
agreed that, in token of reconciliation, there should be 
a solemn service in which Pope and Emperor should 
take part. The Pope, in presence of a vast multitude 
of spectators, received the Emperor in the vestibule of 
the church, before the main door of entrance, and the 



LEGEND OF THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR. 67 

place of this meeting was marked by three slabs of 
red marble inserted in the pavement. 

Great as was the splendor of the scene, and great as 
its importance may have appeared to the chief actors 
in it and to the crowd of spectators, they did not ap- 
preciate its full meaning. It was, in truth, the sign of 
the victory of the ecclesiastical over the secular power 
— a victory of which the consequences are manifest 
even in contemporary history. The event deserved 
commemoration, and the popular legend, though large- 
ly a pure invention, expressed more vividly than the 
true record the real significance of the facts. 

According to this legend, the Pope, poor and desert- 
ed, flying in disguise to escape the persecutions of 
Frederic, took refuge secretly in Venice, and, being re- 
ceived into a monastery, ministered to the brethren for 
some days as their cook. At length a Venetian, who 
had been on a pilgrimage to Rome and had seen the 
Pope there, recognized him under his disguise, and in- 
formed the Doge of his presence in the city. The 
Doge, accompanied by the clergy and the people, at 
once went to the monastery, and thence conducted the 
Pope, with all honor, to the palace of the Patriarch. 
Then the Doge sent messengers to the Emperor to ar- 
range terms of peace, but he angrily refused, bidding 
them tell the Doge that he demanded the surrender of 
the Pope, " and if this be refused," he added, " I will 
come to take him by force, and will set my eagles on 
the very church of St. Mark." 



68 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

The Do2:e did not tremble when he heard these 
words. It was resolved to send out a fleet at once to 
meet the fleet of the Emperor. That of the Venetians 
consisted of but thirty galleys, while that of the Emper- 
or numbered seventy-five. On the 26th of May, 11 77, 
the Feast of the Ascension, the Venetians won a signal 
victory, with their thirty galleys capturing forty of the 
enemy's vessels, and taking prisoner Otho, the son of 
Frederic and the captain of his fleet. Defeat only em- 
bittered the stubborn heart of the Emperor. After a 
while Otho persuaded his captors to let him out from 
prison on parole, that he might try to turn his father's 
mind to peace. Great was the joy of his father at see- 
ing him. Then Otho told him that the rout of his ar- 
mada had been due to no natural cause, but was a 
manifest judgment of God, and the sign of his displeas- 
ure with the Emperor because of his persecution of the 
Pope ; and he besought his father to make peace be- 
fore the arm of the Lord should fall more heavily upon 
him. At last the stiff-necked Barbarossa yielded to 
the arguments and persuasions of his son ; and the two 
set out for Venice, accompanied by a great train of fol- 
lowers. The Doge and the people went out to meet 
the Emperor, while the Pope, in his pontifical robes, re- 
mained standing on a pulpit that had been erected be- 
fore the entrance of St. Mark's. As the Emperor drew 
near, the Pope left the pulpit, and, entering the vesti- 
bule of the church, awaited his approach. The Emper- 
or came, and, overcome with awe at the sight of the 



MYTHICAL HUMILIATION OF BARBAROSSA. 5q 

vicegerent of the Lord whom he had so deeply offend- 
ed and who had visited him with such heavy chastise- 
ment, prostrated himself upon the pavement, kissed the 
foot of the Pope, and prayed for pardon. Then the 
Pope said, setting his foot upon the head of the Em- 
peror, " Super aspidem et basiliscam ambulabis, et con- 
culcabis leonem et draconem," or, as translated, " Thou 
shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion 
and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm 
xci. 1 3). The Emperor, not yet humiliated so far as to 
endure patiently such indignity, replied, " Non tibi, sed 
Petro" (Not to thee, but to Peter, do I humble myself) ; 
and the Pope answered, " Et mihi et Petro" (Both to 
me and to Peter). Then the Pope raised him from the 
ground, and they entered the church with the Doge, 
all the clergy singing " Te Deum laudamus."* 

* See Sanudo, Vite de DucJii, col. 511. This famous legend for cen- 
turies was very widely adopted, not merely by unscrupulous partisans 
of papal pretensions, but by many veracious historians. Even Daru, in 
his Histoire de Vetiise, torn. i. pp. 230 seq., maintains it in spite of the 
fact that Muratori, and before him Sigonius and Baronius, had exposed 
it as a tissue of fables. A thorough examination of the subject by the 
Nobile Angelo Zon is to be found in Cicogna, Inscrizioni Ve7iezzane, vol. 
iv. pp. 574-593. The early credit given to the legend appears from the 
fact that in 1319 it was ordered that the walls of the Church of San Nic- 
C0I6 of the Palace, then " tota nuda picturis," should be painted with 
pictures representing " hystoriam Pape quando fuit veneciis cum domino 
Imperatore." See Lorenzi's invaluable Motiumenti per servire alia Storia 
del Palazzo Ducale di Ve7tezia. Parte I. Venezia, 1 868, 4to, p. 1 2. A cen- 
tury later, in 1425, one wall of the Hall of the Great Council in the Ducal 
Palace was covered with paintings of the same story. Id. p. 63. Nor was 
the popularity of the legend confined to Venice. A series of pictures 
on the walls of one of the apartments of the Palazzo della Repubblica 
at Siena, painted by Spinello d' Arezzo in 1407-8, represents the scenes 
of the story. Siena was proud of being the birthplace of Alexander III. 



70 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

Such was the legend which was cherished by the 
Venetians and adopted by the Church. It represents, 
better than the true history, the popular feeling of the 
time ; and it is itself a piece of the history of St. Mark's, 
as having exalted the pride of the Venetians in the 
church that had been the stage on which a scene of 
such import had been transacted. As time went on, 
they connected these fabulous events with some of 
the chief dignities and chief festivals of the republic. 
Of all her festivals there was none more fanciful or 
more splendid, none which more clearly reflected her 
poetic temperament, than that of the annual espousals 
of the sea by the Doge on the Day of Ascension. 
The actual date of the origin of this ceremony cannot 
be certainly fixed, but it seems likely that the custom 
began not far from the year looo. The later Vene- 
tians were, however, apt to regard it as being in part, 
at least, a commemoration of the marvellous and fabu- 
lous victory gained on Ascension Day over the impe- 
rial fleet ; and it was believed that Pope Alexander had 
given to the Doge the first ring which was cast into the 
sea, as the bridal ring, the sign that, as the wife to her 
husband, so the sea should be subject to the republic* 



* " Uti uxorem viro, ita mare imperio reipublicae Venetse subjec- 
tum," — these were the words of the Pope ; or, according to another 
version, " Te, fili. Dux, tuosque successores aureo annulo singulis annis 
in die Ascensionis mare desponsare volumus, sicut vir subjectam sibi 
desponsat uxorem, quum vere ipsius custos censearis, quare ab infes- 
tantibus nostrum mare quietasti totahter." Sanudo, Vite de Duchi, 
col. 510. 



ENRICO DANDOLO AND INNOCENT III. nj 

Sebastlano Ziani, who thus accomplished peace be- 
tween the two swords, died an old man, in 1 1 78. Four- 
teen years later, a still older man, and one still more 
famous, was chosen Doge, Enrico Dandolo. The re- 
pute of the Venetians for wealth, for arms, for arts, was 
high throughout Christendom. Their energies were 
fresh and their spirit unexhausted. It was during the 
dogeship of Dandolo that St. Mark's was the scene of 
incidents of hardly less interest than those attending 
the pacification of Pope and Emperor, and of which, 
fortunately, a vivid and trustworthy account by one of 
the chief actors in them has come down to us. 

Dandolo had been Doge for six years when, in 1 198, 
Innocent III. was chosen Pope. He was but thirty- 
seven years old, a man of resolute will, of ardent tem- 
perament, and with a political genius that made him 
not only the foremost statesman of his time, but gives 
him claim to rank with the ablest in the long line of 
the successors of St. Peter. He had hardly become 
Pope before he devoted himself, with all the energy of 
his vis^orous character, to incitinq- the rulers and the 
people of Europe to a new crusade. He recognized 
the effect of the crusades in increasing the authority 
and extending the jurisdiction of the papacy. There 
was no lack of motive to excite zeal in a new expe- 
dition for the recovery of the Holy Land. The true 
cross had been lost; Jerusalem was in the hands of 
the infidel; with the loss of Jaffa, in 1197, scarcely a 
stronghold remained for the Christians in Palestine, 



72 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

and the Latin kingdom was little more than a name. 
But Saladin, the great leader of the Mohammedans, was 
dead, and his power had fallen into weaker hands. Let 
but a determined effort be made, and there was yet 
a chance to free Christendom from the ignominy of 
leaving the holy city of its Lord in subjection to the 
Saracen. 

Innocent despatched his briefs and sent his messen- 
gers throughout Europe to rouse the hearts of men, 
and to press upon them the new enterprise. He pro- 
claimed an indulgence, by the terms of which all those 
who should enlist in the crusade and do the service of 
God for one year under arms should be relieved from 
all penalty for the sins of which they should devout- 
ly make confession. Nowhere was the cause more 
ardently preached or the cross more readily taken 
than in the lands of France. The fervid eloquence of 
Foulques, priest of Neuilly, near Paris, stirred the blood 
of young and old, of high and low. Among those who 
pledged themselves to go across sea to fight in the 
cause of the Lord were Thibaut, the young Count of 
Champagne and of Brie ; Louis, Count of Blois and of 
Chartres, both cousins of the King; Simon de Mont- 
fort, who had already served well in the Holy Land, 
and who was, years afterwards, to acquire terrible re- 
pute in the miscalled crusade against the Albigenses ; 
and, following the example of these leaders, many more 
of the chief barons of France. In the spring of 1201 
the preparations had so far advanced that six envoys 



GEOFFROI DE VILLEHARDOUIN. y^ 

were sent to Italy to make arrangements for the em- 
barkation of the crusaders from some Italian port. 
Furnished with full powers, they proceeded to Venice, 
knowing that there they would find a larger supply 
of vessels and of needful stores than at any other 
port. Geoffroi de Villehardouin, Marshal of Cham- 
pagne, was the head of the commission ; and in his 
chronicle of the conquest of Constantinople he report- 
ed their proceedings and the later doings of the cru- 
saders with a spirit, simplicity, and picturesqueness that 
make his narrative one of the most interesting and de- 
lightful pieces of early French literature, as well as the 
most important historical record of the events which 
he describes. His book affords such an image of the 
character and temper of the times as is not elsewhere 
to be found. 

On the arrival of the envoys at Venice, at the sea- 
son of Lent, in February, 1201, the Doge, "a man very 
wise and of great worth," welcomed them cordially, and 
with much honor. Having presented to him their let- 
ters of credence, it was agreed that four days after- 
wards they should lay their propositions before the 
council. At the appointed time " they entered the 
palace, which was very rich and beautiful, and found 
the Doge and his council in a chamber, and delivered 
their message after this manner : ' Sire, we are come 
to you on the part of the high barons of France, who 
have taken the sign of the cross in order to avenge 
the shame of Jesus Christ and to reconquer Jerusalem, 



74 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

if God permit. And, because they know that no peo- 
ple have so great power to aid them as you and your 
folk, they pray you, for God's sake, to have pity on 
the Land beyond the Sea and on the shame of Jesus 
Christ, and to take pains that they may have ships of 
transport and of war.' ' In what manner ?' said the 
Doge. ' In every manner,' said the envoys, ' that you 
can propose or advise, so only they can do and bear 
their part' ' Certes,' said the Doge, ' 'tis a great thing 
they have asked of us, and it seems truly that they are 
devising a high affair ; we will reply to you eight days 
hence. And marvel not if the delay be long, for so 
great a matter needs much reflection.' 

" At the time fixed by the Doge they went back to 
the palace. All the words that were uttered there I 
cannot report them to you, but the end of the confer- 
ence was this : ' Gentlemen,' said the Doge, ' we will tell 
you the decision we have taken, if we can bring our 
great council and the commonalty of our land to con- 
firm it, and you shall consult together to see if you can 
do and bear your part. We will provide fit vessels to 
transport four thousand five hundred horses and nine 
thousand squires, and ships for four thousand five hun- 
dred knights and twenty thousand foot-soldiers. And 
we will agree to provision them for nine months. This 
is what we will do at the least, on condition that four 
marks shall be paid for every horse and two marks 
for every man. And we will make this agreement to 
hold for one year, counting from the day we shall 



TERMS ACCEPTED BY THE ENVOYS. 7^ 

leave the port of Venice to do service for God and 
for Christendom in whatsoever place it may be. The 
sum of this expense before named amounts to eighty- 
five thousand marks. And thus much more we will 
do: we will add fifty galleys armed for the love of 
God, on condition that so long as our joint company 
shall last, of all the conquests we shall make of land 
or of goods, on sea or on land, we shall have one half 
'and you the other. Now, then, consult and see if you 
can do and bear your part' 

" The envoys went out, saying that they would talk 
together, and reply on the next day. They consulted 
and talked together that night, and agreed to do it, 
and the next day went to the Doge, and said, ' Sire, 
we are ready to conclude this convention.' And the 
Doge said he would speak to his people about it, and 
would let them know what he found out. 

" The morning of the third day, the Doge, who was 
very wise and worthy, summoned his great council, and 
this council was of forty men, the wisest of the land. 
And he, by his sense and wit, which was very clear 
and good, brought them to approve and will it. Thus 
he brought them to it, and then a hundred, then two 
hundred, then a thousand, till all agreed and approved. 
Then he assembled at once full ten thousand in the 
chapel of St. Mark — the most beautiful in the world 
— and he said to them that they should hear a mass 
of the Holy Spirit, and should pray God to counsel 
them as to the request that the envoys had made to 
them. And they did so very willingly. 



75 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

" When the mass was said, the Doge sent word to 
the envoys that they should humbly beg the people 
to consent that the convention should be concluded. 
The envoys came to the church. They were much 
looked at by many people who had never seen them. 
By the consent and wish of the other envoys, Geoffroi 
de Villehardouin took the word and said to them, 
' Gentlemen, the highest and most puissant barons of 
France have sent us to you, and they cry you mercy, 
that you take pity on Jerusalem, which is in bond- 
age to the Turks, and that for God's sake you would 
aid them to avenge the shame of Jesus Christ. And 
they have chosen you because they know that no peo- 
ple who are on the sea have so great power as you and 
your people. And they bade us fall at your feet, and 
not to rise till you should consent to take pity on the 
Holy Land beyond the Sea.' " 

The memories of the church were eloquent in sec- 
onding the appeal of the envoy. More than a hun- 
dred years before, the people had been summoned to 
St. Mark's to deliberate as to the part that Venice 
should take in the first crusade, and had resolved to 
join in the holy enterprise. The favor of Heaven 
had attended them, and they had brought back with 
them, as a sign of its grace, the most precious bodies 
of St. Theodore, chief patron of Venice next after 
St. Mark, and of St. Nicholas, another of her special 
heavenly advocates. Again, in 1 123, they had met in 
St. Mark's once more, to resolve, in the presence of 



THE RESOLVE OF THE VENETIANS. 77 

the Lord, to take share in a new crusade ; and again 
the fame of Venice had been increased by the deeds 
of her crusaders ; her dominion had been extended, 
her power in the East augmented, and she herself had 
been enriched with new store of relics, and with those 
stately columns that now stood at the edge of the sea, 
near to her palace and her church, monuments of the 
ancient glory of Tyre, transferred to the still more 
glorious mediaeval city. 

The voice of such memories and monuments as 
these was clear. There could be but one answer to 
the new call to help to rescue the sacred walls of 
Jerusalem. When Villehardouin had finished his ad- 
dress, " the six envoys knelt down weeping, and the 
Doge and all the rest burst into tears of pity, and cried 
out all with one voice, and stretched their hands on 
high and said, ' We consent ! We consent !' Then 
there was such a great noise and uproar that it 
seemed as if the earth trembled. And when this 
great uproar was quieted, and this great emotion (and 
greater no man ever saw), the good Doge of Venice, 
who w^as very wise and worthy, mounted to the pulpit 
and spoke to the people, and said to them, ' Gentle- 
men, behold what honor God has done you ! for the 
best people in the world have turned from all other 
people and have sought your company in so high an 
emprise as the deliverance of ou'r Lord.' 

" Of the fair and good words that the Doge spoke I 
cannot report to you all ; but the end of the thing was 



78 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

that they took till the morrow to draw up the papers. 
. . . And when the papers were drawn up and sealed, 
they were brought to the Doge in the great palace, 
where were the great council and the little. And 
when the Doge delivered his papers to them, he knelt 
down, and with many tears he swore upon the saints 
to keep in good faith the agreements that were in the 
papers ; and all his council, which was of forty-six per- 
sons, did the like. And the envoys, on their part, 
swore to hold to their papers, and that the oaths of 
their lords and their own oaths should be kept in good 
faith. And know that many a tear of pity was shed 
there. Then the envoys borrowed five thousand marks 
of silver, and gave them to the Doge to begin the 
fleet ; and then they took leave to return to their own 
country." 

The news that the envoys carried to France of the 
good-will and the promises of the Venetians was re- 
ceived with joy. But " adventures happen as it pleases 
God," says Villehardouin, and many things occurred 
to disarrange the plans of the leaders of the crusade. 
At length, after Easter, in May and June, 1202, the pil- 
grims began to depart from their country. Many of 
them journeyed to Venice, but not all who had prom- 
ised to do so proceeded thither ; so that when all who 
had gone there met together they were greatly trou- 
bled, finding themselves too few to keep their bar- 
gain and to pay the promised money to the Vene- 
tians. Such as had come were received with joy and 



DISCORD AMONG THE CRUSADERS. yg 

honor by the Venetians. They were all lodged on the 
island of St. Nicholas, near the city, and. the army, 
though small, was " very beautiful, and composed of 
good folk." The Venetians provided them well with 
all needful supplies, and the fleet which they had got 
ready was the finest any Christian man had ever seen, 
and sufficient for three times as many people as there 
were in the army. " The Venetians," says Villehar- 
douin, "had fulfilled completely their agreement, and 
even done much more ; and now they summoned the 
counts and barons to perform their part, and they de- 
manded the money due them, for they were ready to 
set sail." But when the price of passage had been 
paid for all who had come to Venice, the sum fell 
short by more than half. Discord arose among the 
crusaders, some, half-hearted, wishing to give up the 
expedition and return home, while others, more in 
earnest, resolved to contribute, over and above their 
share, all that they could spare or borrow, preferring 
to go poor rather than to fail in their vow. "And 
then you might have seen quantities of fine plate of 
gold and silver carried to the palace of the Doge to 
make payment. And when all was paid, the sum still 
fell short by thirty -four thousand silver marks; and 
those who had kept back their property were very 
joyous, and would set nothing thereto, for they thought 
then that surely the army would fail and go to pieces. 
But God, who consoles the disconsolate, would not 
suffer it thus." 



8o VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

Then the Doge spoke to his people to this effect: 
" This folk can pay no more, but let us not therefore 
break our word ; let us agree that the payment of the 
thirty-four thousand marks which they owe us be post- 
poned till God let us, we and they, gain this sum to- 
gether, on condition that they help us to recover the 
strong city of Zara, in Slavonia, which the King of 
Hungary has taken from us." And so, finally, it was 
arranged. 

" Then they assembled one Sunday in the Church 
of St. Mark. It was a very great feast, and the peo- 
ple of the land were there, and most of the barons 
and pilgrims. Before the high mass began, the Doge 
of Venice, who was named Enrico Dandolo, mounted 
the pulpit and spoke to the people, and said, ' Gentle- 
men, you are associated with the best people in the 
world, for the highest affair that has ever been under- 
taken ; and I am an old man and feeble, and have need 
of repose, for I am ill of body ; but I see that no one 
could so govern and lead you as I who am your lord 
{sire). If you will consent that I should take the sign 
of the cross in order to guard and direct you, and my 
son stay in my place and guard the land, I will go to 
live or die with you and the pilgrims.' And when 
they heard him, they all cried with one voice, ' We 
pray thee, for love of God, that you do this, and that 
you come with us.' Very great was then the emotion 
of the people of the land and of the pilgrims, and 
many tears were shed, because this worthy man might 



THE DOGE TAKES THE CROSS. gl 

have had such great reason for staying at home ; for 
he was an old man, and though his eyes were fair to 
look on, yet he saw not at all, for he had lost his sight 
through a wound on the head.* But he had a very 
large heart. He came down from the pulpit and went 
before the altar and knelt down, weeping much ; and 
they sewed the cross on the front of his tall cap of 
cotton, because he wished that the people should see 
it. And the Venetians began to take the cross in 
great numbers. Our pilgrims felt great joy, and their 
hearts were moved on account of that cross which he 
had taken, because of his wisdom and his prowess. 
Thus the Doge took the cross, as you have heard. 
Then they began to deliver the ships and the galleys 
and the vessels to the barons for setting sail, and so 
much time had passed that September [1202] was 
drawing near." 

The resolution of the Doge, now ninety-four years 
old, is an illustration of the spirit that made the cru- 
sades possible, and not less of that which inspired the 
great works of church-building of this period. 

The crusade achieved little for the honor of the 

* Dandolo had been blinded when Venetian envoy at Constantino- 
ple, in 1171, by Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of the East. His blind- 
ness does not seem to have been complete. His descendant, the Doge 
Andrea Dandolo, says simply in his chronicle, " Emanuel itaque erga 
Venetos furore accensus, se eos ad nihilum redacturum adjurans, in le- 
gatos, dum ea quae pacis erant requirerent, injuriose prorupit. Cui 
Henricus Dandolo pro salute patriae constanter resistens, visu aliqua- 
liter obtenebratus est. Oui illatam injuriam sub dissimulatione secre- 
tam tenens, una cum socio Venetias redeunt." Lib. x. cap. i. § 4. The 
" pro salute patriae " is a touch of the true Venetian spirit. 

6 



82 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S. 

cross. The arms of the crusaders were turned against 
Christians and not Saracens. Constantinople was be- 
sieged aind taken by the allied forces of the French 
and Venetians. From the pillage of the imperial city 
Venice gained many precious objects. Her piety was 
gratified by receiving from the Doge as part of the 
booty a piece of the true cross, one of the arms of 
St. George, a part of the skull of St. John the Baptist, 
the body of St. Lucia — Lucia nemica di ciascun crudele 
— the body of St. Simeon, and a phial of the blood of 
Jesus Christ. The crusaders were not of a temper to 
respect the priceless w^orks of ancient art with which 
the city was adorned : the statues of marble were shat- 
tered, those of bronze melted down ; but Dandolo in- 
terposed to save the four horses of gilded bronze that 
Constantine had carried from Rome to decorate his 
hippodrome, and in 1205 they were sent to Venice, 
and shortly after set up on the front of St. Mark's — 
a strange but striking ornament of its fanciful facade, 
and a permanent memorial of the share of Venice in 
the crusade.* 

* Coryat, whose lively description of Venice, in his Crudities (1611), 
gives a picture of the splendid city in the days of its magnificence, 
says : " Two of these horses are set on one side of that beautiful 
alabaster border, full of imagery and other singular devices, which is 
advanced over the middle great brasse gate at the comming into the 
Church, and the other two on the other side. Which yeeldeth a mar- 
uailous grace to this frontispice of the Church, and so greatly they are 
estemed by the Venetians, that although they have beene offered for 
them their weight in gold by the King of Spaine, as I heard reported 
in Venice, yet they will not sell them." 

After the overthrow of the republic they were carried, in 1797, to 



THE VIEW FROM THE TOWER OF ST. MARK'S. g^ 

The story of St. Mark's is an epitome of the story 
of Venice. So long as Venice Hved, St. Mark's was 
the symbol and expression of her life. Among the 
noble works of men, few more beautiful, few more 
venerable, adorn the face of the world. It is the chief 
monument of one of the communities which in its time 
did most to elevate and refine mankind. For a long 
period the Venetians serv^ed as the advance-guard of 
modern civilization, and their history can never cease 
to be of interest to the student of political institutions 
and of the highest forms of human society. From the 
top of the tower of St. Mark's, says an old traveller, 
" you have the fairest and goodliest prospect that is 
(I thinke) in all the worlde. For therehence may you 
see the whole model and forme of the citie, sub uno 
intMitu, a sight that doth, in my opinion, farre sur- 
passe all the shewes under the cope of heaven. There 
you may have a synopsis — that is, a general viewe — 
of little Christendome (for so doe many intitle this citie 
of Venice), or rather of the Jerusalem of Christen- 
dome," and among all the sights of this glorious city 
the best is " the beautiful Church of St. Marke, which 
though it be but little, yet it is exceeding rich, and 
truly so many are its ornaments that a perfect de- 
scription of them will require a little volume." 

Paris, but were restored (as an inscription, curiously out of place on the 
front of the church, records) by the Emperor of Austria, Francis I., in 
1815. 



Ill 
SIENA AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION 



III. 

SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

I. THE BEGINNING OF THE DUOMO, AND THE BATTLE OF MONTAPERTI. 

The annals of Siena during the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries, like those of most other Italian cities, 
are little more than a record of frequent changes in the 
order of government, of popular tumults, of the exile 
of powerful citizens and their armed return to take 
vengeance on and expel their domestic foes, of bloody 
feuds between allied families, and of repeated violence 
and treachery, consequent on bitter party divisions. 
The hate of Guelf and Ghibelline, quickened by the 
passions of intestine factions, was never appeased. 
The turbulent mass of the common people was always 
ready for a call to arms. Each great family had their 
band of retainers, trained for service however desper- 
ate, and their palaces were built as strongholds, not 
for themselves alone, but to afford shelter and protec- 
tion to their numerous followers. 
' In spite, however, of division and discord, in spite of 
broils at home and wars abroad, the city grew and 
prospered, and the strength of the community in- 
creased. Siena became by degrees conscious of her 



88 SIENA. AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. ' 

abilities and her resources. The pride of her citi- 
zens, rising with their growing numbers and gathered 
weaUh, inspired them with zeal to adorn the city, that 
she might be no less beautiful than strong, and might 
display to her emulous neighbors her superiority in 
arts as well as in arms. The genie vana, as Dante calls 
them, were not of a temper to let themselves be out- 
done by their rivals without an effort, or to count nar- 
rowly the cost of works that would do honor to their 
town or add to its magnificence. The community, not- 
withstanding its divisions, was not too broken nor too 
large to share in a common emotion, or to be inspired 
by a single will, at least in the prosecution of such de- 
signs as rose above the level of personal ambitions and 
partisan interests. • 

The latter part of the twelfth century, here as else- 
where in Tuscany, was especially fruitful in undertak- 
ings of this sort. For a longer breathing-spell than 
usual, the city was free from war and exempt from tu- 
mult, so that its people could give their thoughts and 
means to works of common concern for its service 
or adornment. Thus in ii 77 the Sienese began to 
die: throufrh one of the hills enclosed within their 
walls in search of a hidden and mysterious spring 
known to the popular fancy as the Diana. They long 
labored in vain, and Dante scoffs {Purgatory, xiii. 
1 5 1-3) at their lost hopes. But the secret source was 
at last reached, and Diana s Well, in the garden behind 
the Church and Convent of the Carmine, to-day gives 



PUBLIC WORKS OF THE CITY. 3q 

water to the troops quartered in cells once occupied 
by monks. The chief water supply of Siena was, how- 
ever, and is still, derived from sources outside the walls, 
conducted through pipes into the city; and in 1193, 
in order to meet the growing needs of the town, new 
streams were led through underground channels to the 
famous Fonte Branda, while probably about the same 
time the spacious reservoir and noble triple arcade of 
this most picturesque of fountains were constructed 
at public cost. In the next year, 1 1 94, the Campo di 
Siena, the public square, which from that time has been 
the centre of the life of the town, was laid out in its 
actual form. Here the heart of the city has beat high 
in rejoicing and festival, and here its hottest blood has 
stained every stone of the broad pavement. The re- 
public has here celebrated its victories and mourned 
its defeats ; and here the old palaces still sullenly gaze 
on the cheap activities of the daily market, and on the 
shadowy forms of existence that have taken the place 
of the real life and eager emotions of the past. Few 
cities in Italy can boast of a nobler public square, or 
one more crowded with historic association, than this 
shell-shaped Piazza della Signoria. 

But of all the works undertaken by the community, 
the chief was the buildinor of a cathedral. From a 
very early time a church dedicated to the Virgin had 
existed on the site now occupied by the Duomo; and 
here, in still more ancient days, had stood, it is said, a 
temple dedicated to Minerva ; for it had been ordained 



90 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

of God, says one of the Sienese authors most in repute, 
" that the city which, under the hght of the Gospel, 
was to be consecrated to the Virgin Mary, should 
cherish, even in the darkness of paganism, the worship 
of the goddesses most renowned for chastity — Minerva 
and Diana." * 

The position was well chosen for the site of the 
principal sacfed edifice of the city. Siena encloses 
within its walls a curiously broken surface of hill and 
valley. The sharp contrasts of level give to the town 
a striking picturesqueness of aspect. On the top of 
one of the heights, a hundred and fifty feet above the 
ravine-like valley beneath it, rises the cathedral, seem- 
ing alike to crown and to keep watch over the city. 
Its rectangular Campanile lifts itself high above the 
city walls, matched only by the lighter and more 
aspiring tower of the Palace of the Republic standing 
on the Campo below. Round the feet of these towers, 
symbols of the religious devotion and civic indepen- 
dence of the restless but vigorous little republic, the 
turbulent life of Siena whirled and eddied ; and now 
that her life has run low, her power gone, her glory 
become a mere memory, these towers stand as the 
monuments of her former proud self, and of a noble 
spirit and eager energies long since extinct. 

But when the cathedral was building there was 
blood enough in the veins of the Sienese, and their 
pulses were quickened by the work. Its magnificence 
* Gigli, Diario Sanese, Lucca, 1723, parte ii. p. 426. 



THE DUO MO A CIVIC WORK. gi 

was not only the proof of their devotion, but the sign 
of their strength, and of the abundance of their re- 
sources. It was to be as well the envy of neighboring 
cities as the delight of their own. It was a civic, much 
more than an ecclesiastical, work ; and the votes of a 
majority in the popular assembly determined not only 
how it should be carried on, but elected the architect 
and the overseers who were to be engaged on the 
building. Bishop and clergy exercised no authority 
over it. The lay democracy were the rulers in all that 
concerned it. 

Of the existing Duomo probably no visible portion 
belongs to an earlier date than the second quarter of 
the thirteenth century. But the Duomo, as it now 
stands, grew out of an earlier building by successive 
modifications and additions. In the preceding century 
the Sienese had been at work on the church, and the 
Campanile, one of the finest in Italy, is said to have 
been begun in 1146, built up upon the solid founda- 
tions of one of those towers for defence which formed 
an essential part of the city habitation, half fortress, 
half palace, of every great family.* There is a tradi- 

* The number of such towers in Siena, as in other ItaHan cities, at 
this time, was very great, and gave characteristic picturesqueness to 
its aspect : 

" Turribus et celsis consurgunt moenia pinnis 
Exornantque suam tectis subhmibus urbem." 

A description of the towers of Pavia, written about the year 1300, 
would serve for Siena as well : " Quasi omnes ecclesias habent turres 
excelsas propter campanas, etc. Ceterarum autem turrium super lai- 
corum domibus excelsarum mirabiliter maximus est numerus, ex qui- 



Q2 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

tion that the Pope Alexander III,, a Slenese by birth, 
the Pope who, according to the legend, put his foot on 
the neck of Frederic Barbarossa prostrate before him 
in the vestibule of St. Mark's — there is a tradition that 
Alexander, during a stay in Siena in 1 1 79, consecrated 
the then existing church. It seems likely, however, 
the building was not then complete, for there exist 
numerous records of work done on the Duomo in the 
early part of the thirteenth century, though little is 
known of its exact nature. 

With the growth of the city and the increasing pros- 
perity of the citizens, the need was felt of a larger and 
finer church. The splendid Cathedral of Pisa, not far 
off, was a goad to the pride and the vanity of the Si- 
enese. The old forms of building, in which the an- 
cient tradition of Roman art had maintained suprem- 
acy, no longer satisfied the newly aroused creative in- 
telligence of the mediaeval communities. Italy took 
hints of Gothic construction and form from the build- 
ers of Northern cathedrals and castles, but she never 
adopted the style as her own. Her builders were 
stimulated to their utmost endeavors by the wonders 

bus multae tarn ex vetustate, quam studio civium se invicem persequen- 
tium ceciderunt." The author of the little Chronicle of Ferrara, writ- 
ing near the end of the thirteenth century, and telling of the discords 
of the citizens, introduces a charming touch of nature in his descrip- 
tion of the party strifes : " Audivi a majoribus natu, quod in quadra- 
ginta annorum curriculo altera pars alteram decies a civitate extru- 
serat. Accepi puer a genitore meo, hiberno tempore confabulante in 
lare, quod ejus tempore viderat in civitate Ferrarise turres altas tri- 
ginta duas, quas mox vidit prosterni et dirui." Cited by Muratori, 
Antic/i. ItaL, tomo i. parte 2, p. 205. 



GOTHIC ART IN TUSCANY. ^^ 

of the development of the pointed arch ; but they held 
true, for the most part, to their inherited principles of 
construction and of ornament. The Gothic structures 
in Italy stand on Roman foundations. But at this mo- 
ment Tuscany was inspired with zeal to build after the 
Gothic manner. Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Prato, Pistoia, 
and many a less noted town, were rebuilding, or propos- 
ing to rebuild, their old churches according to the new 
style; and so it was in Siena. The edifice dates it- 
self. Its character indicates that it belongs, in general 
scheme at least, to the thirteenth century, but it indi- 
cates also that it was not, like the Duomo of Orvieto, 
erected according to a plan carefully laid out in ad- 
vance, and closely adhered to in the progress of the 
work; but that it rather grew up in the course of a 
hundred years, part by part, with many variations of 
design, its successive architects seeking only to pre- 
serve a general harmony of effect, with little considera- 
tion of exact conformity of parts or of precise regular- 
ity of execution. 

Malavolti, the trustworthy historian of Siena, states 
that the new church was begun in 1245, ^^^d, in the 
absence of contemporary records, this date may be as- 
sumed as that of the earliest visible part of the exist- 
ing cathedral* 

* Malavolti's words are : " Nel medesimo anno [1245] i Sanesi volendo 
accrescer la lor chiesa catedrale, la quale non essendo molto grande, 
non era capace ne' giorni piu solenni a ricever '1 popolo di quella citta, 
poi ch' ella s' era cosi ripiena d' habitatori, ch' in quel tempo faceva 
undicimila ottocento famiglie." //'/5/(?/'/«, Venetia, 1599, parte i. p. 62 b. 



94 



SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 



Although records concerning the origin and first 
progress of the design are wanting, yet contemporary 
documents remain which show the methods adopted 
by the commune In the carrying-on of the building, 
and illustrate the relation of the people, and of the 
authorities elected by them, to w^iat was called dis- 
tinctively L Opera, or " The Work." 

In the Archives of State at Siena there is a manu- 
script volume of the statutes of the commune, com- 
piled about 1260. Among other matter of great inter- 
est, it contains various ordinances regulating the du- 
ties of the magistracy in respect to the Duomo. They 
are not all of one date, but all are to be regarded as 
in force at the time of the compiling of the statute.* 
Their form is that of an oath of the Podesta, or chief 
magistrate of the city. He was elected annually, and 
upon taking office he was obliged to swear to main- 
tain the statutes of the commune. The first article 
concerns the Duomo, the Podesta swearino: that, within 
a month from the beginning of his rule, he will cause 
the master of the works to take oath to pay over 
whatever moneys for the work may come to his hands 
to three legates hoinines de poenitentia, chosen by the 
Bishop, the Consuls of the Trades, and the twenty-four 

* This volume bears the title of Staiiito Senese, No. 2. The Sienese 
archives are exceedingly rich in documents relating to the early mu- 
nicipal history of the city, full of important and curious material il- 
lustrating the social and political conditions of Tuscany during the 
Middle Ages. They are admirably arranged and cared for. The his- 
tory of mediaeval Italy must be studied and rewritten in the archives 
of its cities. See App. I. " Documents relating to the Duomo." No. I. 



STATUTES RELATING TO THE DUO MO. gr 

Priors of the City, and that he will oblige these three 
men to take upon themselves the debts of the work, 
and to render accounts every three months to the 
Council of the Bell and of the People.* 

In the next clause the Podesta swears to summon 
the Council of the Bell during the month of January, 
to provide for the appointment of men who shall audit 
the accounts and determine how the building shall be 
proceeded with, and whether there shall be one master 
of the works or more. 

Subsequent clauses provide the mode of expending 
any balance of money that may remain in the hands 
of the master of the works, and ordain that all persons 
who may receive contributions for the building shall 
take oath to pay them over without diminution to the 
proper authorities. They further provide that marble 
quarried for the building shall be brought into the city 
at public cost; that ten master-w^orkmen shall be em- 
ployed every year on the building at the expense of 

* The Const'lmm CampancB et Populi was the chief legislative assem- 
bly of the city. It was composed of three hundred citizens, one hun- 
dred being chosen by popular vote from each terzo, or third of the 
city, to whom, in certain cases, fifty more were added. It met at irregu- 
lar intervals, generally as often as once or twice a week, and derived 
its name from the bell by whose sound it was convoked. Its meetings 
were usually held in the Church of St. Christopher, which still stands 
on the Piazza de' Tolomei, facing the palace of the family after whom 
the square is named, one of the finest early Gothic palaces in Italy. 
The old walls of the church remain, but the fagade and the interior 
have been modernized and spoiled. The records of the Consiglio della 
Campana exist in the archives, almost unbroken, from the year 1252, 
and are among the most important sources for the history of the re- 
public. 



q5 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

the commune; that these masters shall take oath to 
work in summer as well as in winter, and for the same 
wages, bona fide, sine fraude, sicuti in propria sua labo- 
rarent, and to do no other work unless by special per- 
mission of the Podesta ; that in January of each year 
the Podesta and the Captain, and the Consuls of the 
Trades and the Priors of the City, shall make all need- 
ful provision for the progress of the work, et stiper 
omnibits titilitatibiis faciendis pro dicto opere ; that all 
citizens of Siena, owners of beasts of burden, shall, 
twice a year, bring loads of marble to the work, on 
condition that the Bishop shall give to such persons 
for each load indulgence of one year for penance im- 
posed on them; and, finally, that a judge shall be ap- 
pointed who shall decide summarily, sine solempnitate 
judiciortnn, in all matters of dispute concerning the 
works, and shall order payment of whatever is due to 
them, and that his judgments shall be executed by the 
Podestk or other civil authorities. 

These provisions, standing as they do at the very 
head of the ancient Sienese code, clearly exhibit the 
popular and municipal character of the work, and 
indicate the feeling with which it was regarded as a 
sacred charge, the chief of the concerns of the com- 
mune. 

The construction of so great and so magnificent an 
edifice as the people had resolved that their Duomo 
should be was a work to demand not only vast labor, 
but enormous expense. But the proud and prosper- 



SOURCES OF FUND FOR BUILDING. 07 

ous Sienese counted no cost too heavy. The contri- 
butions of individuals, the offerings of zeal or super- 
stition, and sums voted from time to time by the Coun- 
cil of the Bell, supplied a considerable part of the fund 
for building.* The Bishop and canons of the church 
had large revenues, of which a portion may have been 
expended for the same object! 

But the fund was also increased by the offerings 
made every year, at the Feast of the Assumption of 
the Virgin, the 15th of August, by the citizens of Si- 
ena and by the towns and cities subject to her domin- 
ion. These offerings were in money, or more gen- 
erally in candles, or wax for candles. As early as 
1200 an ordinance was passed that every inhabitant 
of the city and of its suburbs between the ages of 
eighteen and seventy should, under penalty of one 
hundred soldi, offer a wax-candle at the Duomo on 
the vigil of the Madonna of August, the Madonna of 
the Assumption, to whom the church was dedicated.^ 
Whenever Siena added a new villaafe or town to her 
rule, whether by peaceful means or by force, a clause 

* It was an old rule of the Canon that one fourth of the revenue and 
of the offerings should be assigned to the church fabric. " Quatuor 
autem tarn de reditu quam de oblatione fidelium . . . convenit fieri 
portiones ; quarum sit una pontificis, altera clericorum, tertia paupe- 
rum, quarta fabricis applicanda." Codex Cano7iiim Ecdesiasticorinn et 
Co7istitiitorum S. Sedis Apost. cap. Iviii. § xxiii. 

t The Bishop of Siena was one of the most powerful prelates of 
Northern Italy. His feudal possessions embraced a rich and extensive 
territory, over which he exercised exclusive jurisdiction, and from 
which he exacted a large annual tribute. 

X Archivio del Duoino, Perg. 108. 

7 



o8 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

was inserted in the gmramento, or oath of submission, 
binding the subject community to the offering of can- 
dles at the Duomo on the great feast of August, which 
still remains the chief festival of the Sienese calendar.* 
Nor were these offerings of wax -candles the only 
tribute exacted by Siena from her subjects for the ben- 
efit of the church building. Many a robber chieftain 
of the Maremma or baron of the mountains was forced, 
during the thirteenth century, to submit himself, his 
castle, and his lands in feud to Siena, and, as a sign of 
his submission, to make offering each year with his 

* In 1204, for instance, the town of Montelatrone, giving herself to 
Siena, promises to send every year a candle of twelve pounds of wax, 
on the Feast of S. Maria, in August, provided that the expenses of the 
bearers of it be defrayed by the authorities of Siena. In 1232, Chiusi, 
making league with her more powerful neighbor, promises to send a 
" cero," or wax-candle, every year, according to custom. A hundred 
years later, when the town of Foseni submitted to Sienese dominion, it 
promised that every year, at the Feast of S. Maria d' Agosto, its syndic 
should carry to the Duomo of Siena, in token of subjection, "unum 
cerum de cera foliatum, ponderis xxv libr. cere," and that he should be 
accompanied by eight householders of the town, each bringing a can- 
dle of one pound in weight. In 1224 the city of Grosseto, having re- 
belled against Siena, and being brought anew under her rule, promised, 
among other terms of submission, to send every year to Siena, on the 
Feast of the Assumption, fifty of its citizens, each of whom should 
present a wax-candle to the Opera, or Board of Works, of the Duomo. 
So, too, four years later, the Ghibelline exiles from Montepulciano, 
making league with Siena, pledged themselves that when with her aid 
they should be restored to the control of their city, they would every 
year, on the same feast, send their chamberlain, accompanied by fifty 
cavaliers, to offer at the cathedral a wax -candle of fifty pounds in 
weight. 

For the last two instances, see Malavolti, Historia, parte i. pp. 51, 52. 
The preceding I have taken from the series of records known as the 
Caleffo Vecchio, in the Archives at Siena, each under its respective year. 
The list might be greatly extended. See Appendix I. Document II. 



FESTIVAL OF THE MADONNA OF AUGUST. ^^ 

own hand of a certain number of silver marks on the 
high-altar of the cathedral.* 

The festival of the Madonna of August, as the Sien- 
ese termed the Feast of the Assumption, was the 
most striking and picturesque of the civil and re- 
ligious ceremonies of her year. But the contempo- 
rary mediaeval chroniclers, finding the times in which 
they lived as prosaic as the present always is except to 
the poet, took little pains to note the details of even 
the most impressive scenes of which they were wit- 
nesses, and have left no description of the festival. 
The facts concerning it to be gathered from scattered 
sources are, however, enough to enable us to depict it 
in part, though the liveliest fancy may well fail to re- 
produce it in all its variety of aspect and brilliancy of 
color. On the vigil of the feast, a procession of the 
citizens, arranged under the ensigns of their trades or 
the banners of their parishes, and in their distinctive 
costumes, headed by the nobles of the city in their 
most splendid apparel, and accompanied by the magis- 
tracy in their garb of office, was conducted with sol- 
emn pomp to the cathedral, there to take part in the 
sacred services, and to lay their offerings on the high- 
altar. That evening, or the next day, the deputies of 
the cities, castles, and villages under the dominion of 
Siena, each delegation in ceremonial robes, together 
with the counts and barons who owed allegiance to the 
city, presented themselves with their due tribute, their 
* Malavolti, Historia, parte ii. p. 28 b. 



lOO SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

pride soothed by the fact that the symbol of their sub- 
jection had the form of an offering in the service of 
the Lord. The solemn and splendid ministrations of 
the church were made more magnificent by the stately 
order of the processions, the display of gay and costly 
dresses, the gleaming of armor and the waving of in- 
numerable banners. It was a proud sight for Siena as 
she watched the defile through her narrow and em- 
battled streets of band after band of the envoys of the 
towns that acknowledged her sway, and of the nobles 
whom she had compelled to become her vassals, and it 
was no wonder that for a befitting stage for the closing 
scene of such a spectacle she was resolved to have a 
cathedral that should not be surpassed by any other in 
Tuscany. 

Whether all the offerings made, and all the tribute 
paid on the 15th of August, went to the advancement 
of the work of construction cannot be told ; but that a 
large portion of them did so there is no doubt. The 
candles were disposed of for the benefit of the build- 
ing fund, and the money was paid directly into the 
hands of the ofHcer duly authorized to receive it and 
expend it in the prosecution of the works.* 

* The profitable disposal of the great quantity of candles received in 
tribute was secured by the large and constant demand for them by per- 
sons wishing to burn candles at the shrine of the Madonna or of a 
favorite saint, in fulfilment of a vow or for the obtaining of some 
grace ; and also by their use in the frequent religious processions by 
which the popular piety was both manifested and stimulated. There 
is no doubt that the sale of candles offered by the faithful was one of 
the chief common resources for obtaining means to carry on the work 



EARLIEST RECORDS OF BUILDING. iqi 

Besides the sources of revenue already enumerated, 
there were not infrequent legacies to the Opera ;* and 
during the greater part of the thirteenth century the 
resources for building seem to have been ample, with- 
out recourse to any extraordinary means for stimulat- 
ing the zeal and good-will of the community towards 
the work. 

The earliest documents known to exist relating to 
the building of the actual Duomo are of the year 1259. 
At a meeting of the Consiglio della Campana, held in 

of church-building. In 1 260, after the victory of Montaperti, the Sienese 
resolved to erect a church in honor of St. George, and the popular 
Council passed an ordinance, " De cereis portaiidis ad ecclesiavi Sancti 
Georgii in ejus festivitate" the second chapter of which runs as follows : 
" Ut cerez portati ad ecclesiain Sancti Georgii in festivitate convertan- 
Hcr in ejus titilitatem. Et predicti cerei convertantur in constructionem 
ecclesie supradicte ; et idem fiat de aliis cereis omnibus qui in festivi- 
tate predicta vel in vigilia ipsius festivitatis portabuntur ad dictam ec- 
clesiam. Et omnes dicti cerei, quolibet anno in dicto festo debeant 
pervenire ad manus operarii ecclesie nove Sancti Georgii, vel trium bo- 
norum hominum de populo dicte ecclesie, si operarius non esset, qui 
teneantur dictos cereos recipere, et eos convertere in constructionem 
dicte ecclesie." See La Battaglia di Montaperti, di Cesare Paoli, Siena, 
1869, 8vo. Document e V. pp. 80, 81. See also, for similar facts, the 
terms of the agreement between the masters "dell' arte della pietra" 
and the operaio of the Duomo concerning the construction of an altar 
for the stonecutters' guild, November 4, 1368 ; Milanesi, Docu?nenti per 
la Storia dell' Arte Seitese, Siena, 1854-56, tomo i. p. 266. See Muratori, 
Antich. Ital. tomo iii. parte i. p. 242, for illustrations of the prevalence 
of this custom of offering candles or wax. 

* In th.& Arckivio del Duomo there are many records of such legacies. 
For instance, in the year 1235, Perg. 178; in 1246 one Alessio del gia 
Guglielmo leaves his possessions to the Hospital of S. Maria di Siena, 
on condition that every year, ijt perpetuo, till the Duomo be finished, 
twelve measures ("staja") of grain be paid to the Opera, Perg. 198; 
and to this bequest he adds, by a codicil, a legacy of ten lire in money, 
Perg, 199; other legacies are recorded in 1250, 1257, 1258, 1259, 1265, 
and many subsequent years. 



I02 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

the Church of St. Christopher, on the i6th of Novem- 
ber, 1259, it was voted that nine judicious men ("sapi- 
entes viri"), three from each of the local divisions, or 
tcrzi, of the city, should be appointed to consult with 
the Master of the Works ; and that they should see 
and determine what best may be done in the church ; 
and that whatever all or a majority of their number 
should order, so it should be done.* 

On the 28th of November the nine "sapientes viri" 
render their reports, a majority of six recommending 
one course, the minority another. This division of 
opinion seems to have prevented immediate action, and 
ten weeks later, on the nth of February, 1259-60,! at a 
meeting of the Consiglio, it was agreed (" fuit in Con- 
cordia") to appoint a new committee of nine good men 
(" boni homines"), with a similar charge, to direct what 
work should be done at the Duomo. Accordingly, on 
the 20th of the month, the nine good men being met 
in the cathedral, and the name of Christ being in- 
voked, they unanimously agree in ordering Fra Me- 
lano. Master of the Works, to vault the space between 
the two last marble columns and the rear wall of the 
church, and to do some other less important work. 
Three months later the same committee of nine — " no- 

* This and the following documents referred to of the same and the 
next year are printed by Milanesi in the first volume of his Dociimenti. 
The originals are in the Archives of State, having been transferred 
thither, with other early records, from the Archives of the Opera del 
Duomo. 

t The Sienese year, like the Florentine, began on the 25th of March, 
the Feast of the Annunciation. 



PROGRESS OF WORK IN 1260. iq-^ 

biles viri boni electi et positi a consilio comunis et 
populi Senensis qualiter procedatur in opere sancte 
Marie et quomodo ibi laboretur" — direct Brother Me- 
lano to construct, between the two next columns, three 
more vaults like those just made, and also to vault the 
part of the church between the altar of St. Bartholomew 
and the door near to it. But the vaulting just com- 
pleted, whether it had been constructed too hastily or 
with insufficient skill, was already giving signs of weak- 
ness; and on the 9th of June twelve master-workmen 
employed on the building, and two other master-build- 
ers not so employed, were consulted as to its stability. 
.Their advice was that the vaults should not be thrown 
down and rebuilt on account of the cracks apparent in 
them, " because," they say, " other vaults to be made 
next them may be so well joined to them that they will 
not open any farther ; nor are the said vaults in which 
the cracks exist at all weakened by these fissures." 

Here all information concerning the progress of the 
building in this year comes to an end. But, besides 
the vivid illustration these documents afford of the 
manner in which the work was conducted, and of the 
active supervision of the community over it, they throw 
a strong light on the spirit of the Sienese at one of the 
most critical periods of their history. The year 1260 
is the most famous in the annals of Siena. While she 
was thus busy with her cathedral, she was still busier 
in making preparations for a war in w^iich her very 
existence as an independent city was at stake. 



I04 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

The long contentions during the first half of the cen- 
tury between the Emperor Frederic 11. and successive 
popes had imbittered the great party strife throughout 
Italy between Guelf and Ghibelline. Though the con- 
flicting ideas represented by these names were often 
lost sio^ht of in the heats of civil faction or domestic 
feuds, or partially reconciled in alliances contracted 
under the influence of temporaiy but powerful inter- 
ests, and Guelf might, in the confusion of the times, be 
found fighting against the Pope, and Ghibelline against 
the Emperor, yet in the main the Guelfs were constant 
in opposition to the domination of a foreign ruler in 
Italy, favoring the increase of popular liberties as the 
surest mode of securing the independence of their sev- 
eral cities, and hence the independence and unity of 
Italy ; while, on the other hand, the Ghibellines sought, 
in their support of the Emperor, who maintained, to 
the imagination at least, the ancient imperial tradition, 
to provide a strong feudal head for the State, under 
whose rule existing privileges and liberties would be 
safe, civil discord repressed, and the natural grades 
of orderly society preserved. The very bitterness of 
the hatred between these two parties was an indication • 
of the strength of the common passion and principle 
which in reality underlay all differences — the princi- 
ple of communal independence, the passion for the 
unity of Italy. Each Tuscan city was in turn ruled 
now by one party and now by the other, according as 
the leaders of one or the other gained forces and ad- 



EFFECT OF DEATH OF FREDERIC II. 105 

herents. The history of Italy during this period is a 
record of woes wrought by these fatal divisions — a rec- 
ord of wars, treasons, banishments, confiscations, and 
ruin repeating themselves, with mournful monotony, 
year after year ; fruitless victory alternating with fruit- 
less defeat, the victors of one season becoming the 
vanquished the next* 

The death of Frederic, in 1250, depressed the spirit 
even more than it weakened the strength of the Ghib- 
ellines. The striking individuality of his strong char- 
acter, the rare qualities of his genius, and the unusual 
fortune that attended him had deeply impressed the 
imaginations of his friends and his enemies alike. He 
had been the " wonder of mankind." Freed from the 
dread of his long-reaching arm, Florence, always Guelf 
at heart, called back those of her citizens who had been 

* The chronicles of the Italian cities, both North and South, are full 
of pictures of the wretchedness produced by party divisions and pas- 
sions. Freedom from strife is nowhere to be found ; there is neither 
quiet nor security. 

" Cerca, misera, intorno dalle prode 
Le tue marine, e poi ti guarda in seno, 
S' alcuna parte in te di pace gode." 

Malavolti, speaking of the hate of Guelf and Ghibelline, says, " Ne ci 
rimase alcun popolo che non fusse infettato da quella pernitiocissima 
contagione, per la quale, senza haverne altra causa, combatteva 1' uno 
con r altro, con nimicitia mortale, e non solamente una citta contra 
air altra, ma le medesime citta divise in queste fattioni combattevano 
infra di loro ; havendo ciascuna parte, non solo differenti le sue in- 
segne, con le quali usciva alle guerre, ma haveva differentiati i color!, 
11 portar de gli habiti, i gesti della persona, et ogni minima cosa ; tanto 
che dair aspetto solamente si potevan conoscere i Guelfi da Ghibellini ; 
e non solo eran tra Sanesi queste divisioni, ma . . . era nato nuovo 
disparere tra molti cittadini." Historia, parte i. p. 61 b. 



I06 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

in exile, expelled some of the leading Ghibellines, and 
put herself at the head of the Guelf interest in Tus- 
cany. But the rising power of Manfred, the son of 
Frederic, and now King of Sicily, soon restored hope 
to the Ghibellines, and inspired them with new bold- 
ness, so that the Florentines, fearing the designs of 
the o-reat GhibeUine families that still remained within 
her walls, rose against them in 1258, and in a tumult 
of popular fury tore down, sacked, and burned their 
houses, murdered some of the chief among them, and 
drove the rest to flight and exile. Several hundreds of 
the banished Ghibellines, with Farinata degli Uberti,* 
one of the most marked figures of the time, at their 
head, betook themselves to Siena, where the Ghibellines 
were the ruling party. Siena was noted for her devo- 
tion to the imperial cause. She received the exiles with 
open arms, as bringing a welcome addition to her war- 
like strength. But in thus sheltering those whom Flor- 
ence had driven out, Siena quickened into flame the 
always smouldering hate of her jealous and overbearing 
neighbor. For more than a hundred and fifty years, 
the two commonwealths had been in open hostility or 
latent enmity. The prosperity of one was an offence 
to the other. The boundaries of one were the limits 
to the territory of the other, and disputes were com- 
mon along the variable line, affording easy occasion 

* Few readers will need to be reminded of Dante's interview with 
" quell' altro magnanimo," who bore himself in torment 

"Come avesse 1' Inferno in gran dispitto." 



ALLIANCE WITH MANFRED. 107 

for recourse to arms. But now there was more serious 
ground of quarrel. 

Siena had bound herself by treaty only three years 
before not to receive or harbor any person banished 
from Florence.* Siena had no valid excuse for her 
breach of faith ; the act was one of manifest hostility 
to Florence, in the interest of the cause which Siena 
had at heart. From within her walls the exiled and 
impatient Ghibellines could watch their chance, and 
with her aid make good their return to their own city. 
Florence could not endure to be thus threatened. She 
sent envoys to demand the fulfilment of the treaty. 
The Sienese, encouraged by Manfred, refused to send 
away the exiles. She drew close her alliance with the 
king, swearing fealty and obedience to him, and he, in 
return, took the commune formally under his protec- 
tion, pledging himself to maintain, defend, and aid it 
against its enemies, whosoever they might be.f Mean- 

* " Aliquem exbannitum a comuni Florentiae." The original of the 
treaty is in the Archives of State at Siena, Pergamene delle Rifonna- 
gioni. An. 1255. Signer Cesare PaoU has printed a part of it in his ex- 
cellent work before referred to, La Battaglia di Moittaperti, Docu- 
menti, p. 75. 

t The curious instrument by which Manfred, in May, 1259, under- 
took the protection of the city still exists in the Sienese archives. It 
has been printed by Malavolti, parte ii. p. 2 ; and by Saint-Priest, Hist, 
de la Conquetede Naples par Charles dAnjon, tome i. p. 360. The words 
of Manfred's promise have a rhetorical character which illustrates a 
trait in his personal disposition : " Promittentes a modo civitatem 
predictam cum omnibus supradictis manu tenere, defendere, et juvare 
contra quoslibet offensores, et sicut nos turrim sue fortitudinis ele- 
gerunt, sic sub felicis Dominii nostri tempore tranquilla pace qui- 
escant et suorum emulorum insultus muniti potentie nostre clypeo 
non formident." 



I08 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

while active preparations for war went on on both 
sides. At the end of the year 1259 Manfred made 
good his promise by sending to Siena, as his vicar, his 
cousin Giordano d' Anglano, Count of San Severino, 
and with him a troop of mercenary German horse- 
men, several hundred strong. During the winter of 
1259-60 Siena, besides fitting out a strong force to 
reduce Grosseto and other places in the Maremma 
that had rebelled asrainst her, was ensfas^ed in streno^th- 
ening her walls, in laying in a store of provisions, and 
in preparing supplies of tents, cross-bows, and other 
munitions of war " pro conforto nostrorum et pro ter- 
rore rcbellium." * 

On the 19th of April the Florentine forces moved out 
from Florence, and, after a successful campaign in the 
Maremma, encamped near Siena on the 1 7th of May. 
The next morning the Count Giordano, at the head of 
the band of German horse, supported by a small body 
of Sienese infantry, made an impetuous sortie, and 
routed the first ranks of the enemy ; but, overpowered 
by numbers, he was driven back with great loss, leav- 
ing the banner of King Manfred in the hands of the 
Guelfs. But the vigor of this sortie seems to have 
convinced the Florentines that they were not strong 
enough to reduce the city. The next morning their 
army broke camp and withdrew, and a few days after 
re-entered Florence in triumph, with a number of pris- 

* Coitsiglio della Campana, Reg. 9, car. 53. See Paoli, La Battaglia 
di Montaperti, p. 19, 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE STRUGGLE. 109 

oners, and with the royal banner of Manfred trailing 
in the mud. It was while these events were taking 
place that Fra Melano was building the new vaults at 
the Duomo and the discussion as to their stability was 
going on. 

Manfred no sooner heard of the triumph of the 
Guelfs and of the insult that had been offered to his 
banner, than he sent a fresh supply of mercenary horse 
to Siena, while the Sienese themselves, feeling that the 
tug of war was yet to come, strained every nerve to 
prepare for the struggle,* 

On the other hand, the Guelfs of Florence summon- 
ed all their allies and friends to join forces with them 
for an expedition that should put an end at once to 
the power of the Tuscan Ghibellines, to the preten- 

* The chroniclers of Siena and Florence dififer, as is natural, in their 
accounts of this period, and of the battle which ended it. Much legen- 
dary matter is mixed with the truth. The Florentines lay great stress 
on the part played by the exiles, especially by Farinata degli Uberti, 
both in the preliminary events and in the final combat. It was sooth- 
ing to their pride to ascribe the largest possible share of the eventual 
defeat of the Florentine Guelfs to the arms of the exiled Floren- 
tine Ghibellines. It was Florence against Florence ; the credit of 
victory remained with her. But the Sienese annalists make little 
count of the aid afforded to Siena by the exiles. Signor Paoli, in his 
treatise on the Battle of Montaperti, has carefully sifted the conflicting 
narratives, and has succeeded in reconciling many apparent discrepan- 
cies. My object being to illustrate the character of Siena at the time 
of the building of her Cathedral, it is needless for me to enter into 
these subordinate questions. It is to be regretted, however, that so 
striking a personage as Farinata finds but bare mention in the Sienese 
narratives. One reason for this neglect is, doubtless, that he was the 
head of what may be called the independent Ghibellines of Tuscany, 
who sought to make a party by themselves, while Siena had pledged 
fealty to Manfred, and united her cause with his. 



I lo SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

sions of Manfred to interfere in the affairs of Northern 
Italy, and to the independence and prosperity of Siena. 
At the end of August everything was ready, and the 
Guelf army moved out from Florence with great pa- 
rade and jubilant confidence in an easy victory. Never 
before had so large a force set forth from her gates. 
All her own men of arms, excepting a scanty guard 
left to protect the city, together with contingents from 
Bologna, Prato, Volterra, and other cities, formed the 
main army of near thirty thousand men, while detach- 
ments from Orvieto, Perugia, and Assisi were on the 
way to add to its numbers. At the head of the army 
was the carroccio, from whose tall mast floated the red- 
and-white banner of Florence, the standard and signal 
for the whole host.* Siena could hardly hope to de- 

* The car race to, or " great car," that bore the standard of the com- 
mune, was a symbol of independence widely in use among the free 
cities of Italy, Its invention is ascribed to Eriberto, Archbishop of 
Milan in the eleventh century. It was universally held "as a thing 
venerable and sacred," guarded with greatest care in time of peace, 
and in time of war committed to the charge of a body of picked 
men who were to die rather than desert or surrender it. On oc- 
casion of a military expedition it was richly adorned and drawn 
to field by white oxen, or oxen in white trappings. At each cor- 
ner of the car stood a man steadying, by a rope attached to its top, 
the mast from which floated the banner of the army. On the plat- 
form from which the mast rose was hung a bell that sounded on 
the march, and was rung when the car was stationary in time of 
battle. Upon this platform was also erected an altar at which mass 
was performed previous to an engagement, and on any distant expedi- 
tion a priest attended the march for this special service. When a halt 
was made, the tent of the captain of the forces was set up by the car- 
roca'o, the signal of battle was given from it, and in case of stress or 
defeat it was the rallying-point of the scattered troops. A striking de- 
scription of the carroccio of Florence is given by Ricordano Malespini 



ADVANCE OF THE GUELF ARMY. jjj 

fend herself successfully against such a host of ene- 
mies. But she did not despair. 

Having made directly for Siena, the army of the 
Guelfs encamped, on the 2d of September, about five 
miles from the city, in the valley of the little stream of 
the Biena, surrounded by low and broken ranges of 
hills, near the foot of a height called Montaperti, and 
not far from the banks of the torrent Arbia. Trusting 
to the impression made by their overwhelming force, 
envoys were sent to Siena to declare the will of the 
Florentines that the w^all of the city should be broken 
down so that they might enter where they liked, and 
that Siena should submit herself to the dominion of 
Florence, otherwise she was to expect no mercy. The 
twenty-four Signori, who at the time composed the 
chief magistracy of the city, having heard the message, 
said to the envoys, " Return to your people and tell 
them a reply shall be given them by word of mouth." 
Thereupon the Twenty-four hastily summoned a gen- 
eral council in the Church of St. Christopher and laid be- 
fore it the demands of the enemy. Then, according to 
the chronicle of Domenico Aldobrandini,* after various 

in his History, cap. 164. For a further account of its use in various 
cities see Muratori, Antich. Ital. tomo i. parte 2, pp. 197-202. 

* The writer of this chronicle was not a contemporary narrator of 
these events. The portion of his work relating to the Battle of Mon- 
taperti appears to have been drawn mainly from current popular tradi- 
tion, and has a freshness and directness of narrative characteristic of 
its source. This portion was printed in 1844 by Signor Porri in his 
Miscellanea Storica Sanese. In the same volume is an account of the 
battle composed about the middle of the fifteenth century by Niccolo 
di Ventura. It adds some curious and picturesque details to Aldo- 



112 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

opinions had been given, " Messer Bandinello coun- 
selled compliance with the demand; but this was not 
ao^reed to. Then the counsel of Messer Provenzano 
Salvani* was agreed to that they should send for 
Messer Giordano, vicar of King Manfred, to whom 
Siena was confided." The Count, summoned to the 
council, came attended by some of the officers of his 
troop of German cavalry, who, as soon as they learned, 
through an interpreter, the demand of the enemy, 
showed every sign of gladness. The assembly, thus 
encouraged, voted double pay for a full month to the 
whole band of horsemen in order to make them the 
more hearty in defence of Siena. " And when they 
reckoned it up, one hundred and eighteen thousand 
florins were needed, which, though sought for, were 
not to be found. And on this, Salimbene Salimbeni, 
speaking, said : ' Honorable Councillors, I deal in ready 
money, and I will provide it to the said amount.' And 
this offer being accepted by the Twenty-four, Salim- 
bene went to his own house and brought the money 
on a little cart to the Piazza Tolomei, and delivered it 



brandini's simpler narrative, but is unhistoric in spirit and awkward in 
style. An unsatisfactory translation of it is to be found in the Chro- 
niques Siennoises, par le Due de Dino, Paris, 1846, 8vo. 
* This was he with whom, as Oderisi da Gubbio tells Dante, 

" all Tuscany resounded, 
And now he scarce is lisped of in Siena, 
Where he was lord, what time was overthrown 
The Florentine delirium, that superb 
Was at that day, as now 'tis prostitute." 

Purgatory, xi. i lo-i 14. (Longfellow's Translation.) 



PREPARA TIONS FOR BA TTLE. j j - 

to the said Twenty-four." Then the money was given 
to Count Giordano and his companions, and they left 
the council, and went to give to each man of the eight 
hundred who made up the troop of mercenaries his 
double pay for a month. " And these, having it, made 
good cheer with dances and songs, according to the 
custom of their country." 

All the city being in commotion, the people crowded 
the streets and gathered around the Church of St. Chris- 
topher. There was no dismay, but on every side the 
hurry of preparation for the coming battle. The Coun- 
cil chose a syndic, giving him full powers to govern the 
city in all things. His name was Bonaguida Lucari, a 
man of pure and good life and of the best condition. 
Meanwhile the Bishop had summoned all the clergy — 
priests, canons, and friars — to the Duomo, and he ex- 
horted them " to pray to God and the Virgin Mary ^nd 
the Saints for the people and the city, that they would 
defend them against the impious lusts of the Floren- 
tines ;" and then, all barefoot, they made a devout and 
solemn procession through the cathedral. 

The Council was no sooner ended than the syndic 
Bonaguida, " inspired by God and by the Virgin Mary," 
cried with a loud voice to the people before the church 
in the Piazza Tolomei, and said, " ' Though we be in- 
trusted to King Manfred, yet now meseems we should 
give ourselves, in property and person, the city and the 
territory, with all our dominion, to the Virgin Mary; and 

do ye all follow me with pure faith and good-will.' Here- 
8 



1 14 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

upon Bonaguida bared his head and his feet, stripped 
himself to his shirt, put his girdle round his neck, and, 
having caused the keys of all the gates of Siena to be 
brought to him, he took them, and led the way for the 
people, who, _all barefoot, followed him devoutly, with 
tears and lamentations, up to the Duomo ; and enter- 
ing it, all the people cried aloud Misericordia ! and 
the Bishop, with the priests, came to meet them ; and 
Bonaguida threw himself on the ground at the feet of 
the Bishop, and the people all went on their knees. Then 
the Bishop took Bonaguida by the hand, and lifted him 
up from the ground, and embraced and kissed him ; and 
in like wise did all the people, one to another, in great 
charity and love, and all forgot their wrongs. And 
Bonaguida, standing before the picture of the Virgin 
Mary, uttered these words : ' Oh, Mother most pitiful ! 
oh, Counsel and Help of the afflicted ! help us. I give 
and dedicate to thee the city of Siena, with all its in- 
habitants ; the territory, and all that belongeth to us. 
Lo, I consign to thee the keys. Guard thou thy city 
from every wicked work ; above all, from the tyranny 
of the Florentines. Ah ! Mother compassionate, accept 
this little gift of our good-will. And, notary, do thou 
take note of this donation, that it is forever, so long 
as the world endures.' And so it was done and re- 
corded."* 

* All public resolves and acts of state were recorded and published by 
a public notary. When, near the end of fhe century, the fagade of the 
Duomo was constructed, a picture in mosaic, representing this scene, 
was set over the main door. In the centre was the Virgin enthroned, 



PROCESSION THROUGH THE CITY. tt^ 

The next morning the people assembled at the Du- 
omo to join in a solemn procession. " The crucifix, 
carved in relief, which stands above the altar of St. 
James,* was taken down, and he who bore it was the 
leader of the procession ; and after came the image of 
the Virgin Mary, under a canopy, and then the Bish- 
op, barefoot, and Bonaguida, with head and feet bare, 
and his girdle round his neck; and behind them the 
clergy and the people barefoot, reciting psalms and 
prayers; and thus they went through Siena. And 
having returned to the Duomo, kneeling before the 
high-altar, they prayed God that he would deign to 
hear their prayers, though they were sinners, and that 
he would regard not their deserts, but for pity's sake 
would have compassion on them. Then the Bishop 
took the keys and blessed them and gave them back 

holding the Child. On the right hand an angel presented to her the 
kneeling Bonaguida, in the act of offering to her the keys of the city ; 
on the left stood Siena, in the form of a crowned woman, uttering the 
prayer " Respice, Virgo, Senam quam signas amenam." See Tizio, MSS. 
Historiar. Sen., in the Biblioteca pubblica Comunale. This mosaic was 
probably destroyed in the remodelling of the fagade in the fourteenth 
century. The lover of the early art of Siena may well regret its loss. 

The devout at Siena are still given to the worship of the Virgin. In 
a chapel attached to the little old church of San Pietro, near the Porta 
CamoUia, is a modern picture of the Virgin and Child, under which is 
the following inscription, quite in the spirit of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, — 

" Maria Advocata 

Mediatrix Optima 

Inter Christum 

Et Senam Suam." 

* This crucifix still exists in the Duomo, at the altar in the left tran- 
sept. 



1 16 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

to Bonaguida, and he returned with them to St. Chris- 
topher's." 

And in memory of this was painted, at the high-altar, 
a paper in the hand of the Child in the arms of his- 
Mother, to signify the donation of Siena; and after- 
wards this Madonna was removed, and placed at the 
altar of St. Boniface, and was called Our Lady of Grace. 

The rest of the day, Thursday, was spent in warlike 
preparations. On the next morning, Friday, Septem- 
ber 3, at daybreak, a crier was sent through each quar- 
ter of the city, crying, " Let every man arm himself in 
the name of God and of the Virgin Mary, and report 
himself to his Gonfalonier."* Every man was ready, 
and early in the morning the Sienese army, in good 
array, marched out of the gate of Santo Viene, now dei 
Pispini, the mercenaries under command of Conte 
Giordano, and the soldiers of Siena under that of Conte 
Aldobrandino di Santafiore. Near the front went the 
carroccio of Siena, " with a white banner, which indeed 
gave comfort, for it seemed the mantle of the Virgin 
Mary." Following their special banners came the men- 
at-arms of each of the three w^ards of the city, " and 
priests and friars went with them, encouraging them ; 
and some even of the clerks had arms for fighting." 
The Sienese advanced without opposition from the 
Florentines, passing first the stream of the Bozzone, 
and then that of the Arbia, and finally encamped at 

* There were three Gonfaloniers, or Standard-bearers, one for each 
of the Terzi, or wards of the city. 



THE DA V AND NIGHT BEFORE THE BA TTLE. i j 7 

the foot of Monteropoli, in face of the camp of the 
Guelfs. 

That day after the army had gone out, the women 
who were left behind, and the old men who could not 
bear arms, kept fast, and went in solemn procession, 
with the Bishop and clergy at their head, to visit all 
the holy shrines, " praying God and the Virgin Mary 
for the safety of the Sienese people, and for their lib- 
erty." And having come back to the Duomo, "the 
Bishop, kneeling before the altar, made a devout prayer, 
and then gave the people his blessing, and part went 
to their houses to rest and part remained to pray." * 

As soon as the Sienese army had taken up its posi- 
tion, final preparations were made for battle, and troops 
were told off to harass and disturb the enemy through 
the night. That night a mantling white mist was seen 
to hang over the Sienese camp, at which the people 
marvelled, and some said, " it seemed as it were the 
mantle of our Mother, the Virgin Mary, who watches 
over and defends the people of Siena." t 

Early on the morning of Saturday, the 4th Septem- 
ber, the Sienese prepared for the attack. " ' It is near 
day,' said their captain-general, ' let all the troops com- 
fort themselves with eating and drinking, and then, in 

* Aldobrandini, p. 1 1 ; Ventura, p. 48. 

t Aldobrandini, p. 18 ; Ventura, p. 56. From an early time the Sie- 
nese painters were accustomed to represent the Virgin with a white 
mantle ; varying in this from the common traditional representation 
of her in a red tunic, with a blue robe or mantle. Many instances of 
this peculiar dress may be seen in the pictures in the Gallery of Fine 
Arts at Siena, 



Il8 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION 

the name of God and his mother the Virgin Mary and 
the glorious Messer St. George, the noble cavalier, we 
will forward and begin the victory.' " And thereupon 
were served most excellent roast meats, and a great 
quantity of other provisions, and the best of wines and 
abundance of good bread. And the Germans set them- 
selves to dancing and singing a song in their tongue, 
which says, " Soon shall we see what hap may fall." * 
And this they did while the rest of the army was get- 
ting ready; for it seemed to them a thousand years 
while they waited to mount.f 

Orders were given that the advance should be made 
without sound of trumpet, but with a shout at the mo- 
ment of joining battle. No one was to break ranks for 

* One is reminded of the German mercenaries in the expedition on 
Branksome Hall, — 

" Behind the English bill and bow. 
The mercenaries firm and slow. 

Moved on to fight in dark array, 
By Conrad led of Wolfenstein, 
Who brought the band from distant Rhine, 

And sold their blood for foreign pay. 
And as they marched, in rugged tongue 
Songs of Teutonic feuds they sung." 

Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto iv. st. xviii. 

t Ventura, p. 6i, It is difficult to render the simplicity of the words 
of the chronicler : " E in questo vennero buonissime vivande arrostite 
di diverse carni, e grande quantita di confetti, e di perfetti e solenni 
vini e bene vantaggiati, e grande abondanza di pane pur del piu bello. 
In questo mentre che le cose s' apparecchiavano, el conte d' Arasi, e 
misser Gualtieri con altri tedeschi presono uno bello ballo cantando 
canzone in tedesco, che a nostra lingua dicea : Tosto vedretno cib che si 
ritrova. E questo fero per poco ispazio, acciocche la gente che dormiva 
si svegliasse e si mettesse in ponto, e predesse conforto di mangiare e 
bere, che a loro pareva mille anni di montare a cavallo." 



THE BEGINNING OF THE BA TTLE. i j g 

the sake of taking prisoners or booty ; no quarter was 
to be given to the enemy, but the troops were to ''far 
came',' to kill. At the moment of advance one of the 
German knights, the leader of a band of two hundred 
horse — Master Harry of Astimberg — coming to the 
Captain of the army, said, " The holy empire has given 
the privilege to our House of Astimberg to strike the 
first blow in every battle ; be pleased to allow it now." 
His suit was granted, " and thereupon Messer Walter, 
nephew of the aforesaid Master Harry, leaped from his 
horse, and kneeling, said to his uncle, ' He who receiv- 
eth grace can best grant it ; you have the right to de- 
liver the first blow, and now grant to me that in your 
stead I may be the first to lower lance.' Then Master 
Harry yielded it to him, and kissed him and blessed 
him; and Messer Walter quickly mounted his horse, 
and gave thanks to his uncle for so great an honor, 
and put his helm on his head and set forward." * 

The battle, once joined, soon became a desperate 
fight. What the Sienese lacked in numbers they made 
up in fury; and they were aided — so, at least, say the 
Florentine chroniclers — by treachery in the ranks of 
their enemies. " Messer Bocca degli Abati, the trai- 
tor," says Malespini in his chronicle, "smote and cut 
off the hand of Messer Jacopo de' Pazzi of Florence, 
who bore the standard of the cavalry of the commune 
of Florence. And the cavaliers and the people, see- 

* Aldobrandini, p. 19. Ventura tells the story with many rhetorical 
additions and flourishes. 



I20 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

ing the standard down and the treachery, were put to 
rout." * 

But spite of treachery, spite of panic, the Florentines 
fought bravely ; and, as their fortune grew desperate, 
they rallied round their carroccio, and defended it with 
passionate valor. With tears they kissed it, taking thus 
a last farewell of all that was dear to them, and then 
turned to die, till a heap of the dead surrounded it like 
a wall. But all their efforts were vain. The Ghibel- 
lines gained possession of the carroccio, pulled down 
the banner of Florence, and dragged it in the blood 
and dust, to revenge the insult to the banner of King 
Manfred. 

The victory was complete. Before nightfall the great- 
er part of the Florentine host were dead or captive, and 
the rest were flying in dismay. 

Meanwhile Siena was waitins; and watchinsf in anx- 
ious suspense for the issue of the day on which her fate 
depended. In the morning one Cerreto Ceccolini had 
gone, taking his drum with him, to the top of the tow- 
er of the Mariscotti,t whence he could see the battle- 

* Malespini, Istort'a di Fiorenaa, c. 171 ; G. Villani, Cronica, vi. 78, 
It was this Bocca degli Abati whom Dante found freezing in the ice 
in which traitors were set : 

" Whether 'twere will, or destiny, or chance, 

I know not ; but, in walking 'mong the heads, 
I struck my foot hard in the face of one. 
Weeping, he growled, ' Why dost thou trample me ? 
Unless thou comest to increase the vengeance 
Of Montaperti, why dost thou molest me ?' " 

Inferno, xxxii. 76-81. (Longfellow's Translation.) 
t The tower of the Mariscotti still exists, though diminished in height. 



THE BATTLE WATCHED FROM SIENA. 121 

field. When he saw the Sienese host begin to move 
he beat his drum, and cried aloud to the people who 
gathered round the foot of the tower, telling them of 
the advance, and bidding them pray God for victory. 
When the fight became thick he beat his drum again, 
and cried, " Now they are at work ; pray God for vic- 
tory." And again, after a while, the drummer shouted, 
" Pray God for ours, for they seem to give way some 
little. Now I see it is the enemy who waver." And 
so from hour to hour through the day the drummer 
gave news to the people, till, at length, towards even- 
ing, beating his drum gayly, he cried that the Floren- 
tine banners were on the ground, and the enemy in 
flight* That night there was rejoicing in Siena. 

Wearied with slaughter and the pursuit of the routed 
Guelfs, the Sienese army took up their quarters on 
the site of their encampment of the previous night. 

So ended — • 

" Lo strazio e '1 grande scempio 
Che fece 1' Arbia colorata in rossa ;" 

and neither Florence nor Siena has ever forgotten " la 
vendetta di Montaperti." f 

attached to the Palazzo Saracini. From its summit even now the 
heights of Monteropoli and Montaperti can be seen. 

* Aldobrandini, pp. 19-23; Ventura, pp. 65-73. 

t Liferno, x. 85, 86 ; and xxxii. 80. It is impossible to reconcile the 
conflicting accounts of the numbers of the slain and captured Guelfs. 
The author of a manuscript account of the battle, which exists in the 
Laurentian library, who speaks as one present at it, says : " Fuitque 
Humerus occisorum, sicut existimari potui qui adstabam, mille ducen- 
torum virorum ; sed undecim milium fuit numerus captivorum, ex qui- 
bus ultra octo milia fame et inedia in carcere perierunt. In hoc con- 



122 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

On Sunday morning, at dawn, the Sienese troops set 
out on their triumphal return to the city, and the peo- 
ple who had remained at home went to meet them on 
the way. The army, impeded by the amount of booty 
and the number of prisoners, moved slowly, but reached 
the city before noon, and went at once to the Duomo, 
to offer thanks to God and to the glorious Virgin Mary 
for the great victory. Thence they descended to St. 
Christopher's Church, where they gave over to the 
Twenty -four all that belonged to the commune — 
baggage, standards, pavilions, tents, banners, and what- 
ever of the sort they had taken from the Floren- 
tines.* 

For three days there were continual rejoicings, with 
frequent religious processions and thanksgiving. The 
wounded were cared for at the public expense, and the 
dead were honorably buried. To two of them, Andrea 
Beccarini and Giovanni Ugurgieri, captains of com- 
panies and of noble family, was conceded the honor 
of burial in the cathedral, wherein, up to that time, 
no one had been entombed. The inscribed stones 
which marked their graves, worn by the feet of many 
generations, have been replaced in recent times by oth- 
ers, on which the ancient inscriptions are re-engraved. 



flictu sunt capta viginti milia asinorum victualia simul et bladum por- 
tantium." Plut. xxi. Sin., cod. 5, S. Croce. Paoli, Battaglia de Mon- 
taperti, p. 60. From the effect produced at Florence by the defeat, 
there can be no doubt that a large part of her best men-at-arms were 
lost to her. 
* Ventura, p. 81. 



MEMORIALS IN THE DUOMO. 12-1 

Near the main door of entrance one may read on a 
marble slab, 

" D. O. M. Andreas ex nobili Beccarinorum familia, quia in Montis 
Aperti certamine strenue cecidit hie situs est primus." 

And a little to the right, 

"Johannes Ugurgerius decreto pubhco hie situs est. Decess. Montis 
Aperti clade anno salutis mcclx." 

The simplicity of the record is striking, but the memo- 
rial is sufficient ; for after the lajDse of more than six 
centuries, Siena is still proud of her greatest victory, 
and renews its memory each year in the picturesque 
games with which she celebrates the Festival of the 
Madonna of August. 

Ventura says that the two masts of the Sienese 
carroccio were set up in the Duomo, as memorials of 
the battle, against two piers of the nave, fronting the 
choir. Two tall masts to-day stand bound to these 
piers, but popular tradition asserts that they are those 
that belonged to the captured carroccio of the Floren- 
tines. Both chronicler and tradition may be right; 
one mast may have borne the humbled lilies of Flor- 
ence ; the other the triumphant white ensign of Siena. 

The episode of the battle of Montaperti begins and 
ends at the Duomo. The civic history interweaves 
itself with that of the Cathedral. 



III. — Continued. 

SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

II. THE STORY OF THE DUOMO AFTER I260. 

Siena had now little to fear from her enemies. She 
had broken the strength of her most dangerous rival, 
and had re-established the influence of her own party. 
The Ghibellines throughout Italy had reason to exult 
in her triumph. The Sienese were elated with a new 
sense of power. They were conscious that their vic- 
tory not only made their city conspicuous, but had 
given her a political importance such as she had never 
before possessed. It was for them to make her as 
beautiful as she was glorious, and they turned with 
fresh ardor of piety to the completion and adornment 
of the Duomo, a work to which they were now pledged 
in an especial manner. In the straits of peril they had 
given themselves and their possessions to the Virgin, 
and they acknowledged with devout thankfulness the ^ 
signal protection and assistance with which she had 
manifested her favor. Every emotion of pious gratitude 
combined with every sentiment of patriotic pride to 
stimulate them to make her church a worthy expres- 
sion of their devotion to their heavenly intercessor. 



IRREGULARITIES IN CONSTRUCTION. 125 

Immediately after the victory the old enactment was 
revived, that on the vigil of the Assumption of Our 
Lady every adult citizen of Siena should offer in the 
cathedral a pound of refined wax — a custom, says 
Malavolti, writing more than three centuries later, 
"which has been always observed and is still main- 
tained." * 

The design upon which the cathedral was building 
did not embrace the present prolonged choir or the ex- 
isting facade. Both of these were additions of a later 
period; and it is not unlikely that the building, as 
originally designed, was now approaching its comple- 
tion, for in 1262 there was a large expenditure for lead 
to finish the work on the roof,t and two years later 
the final touch was given to the cupola at the inter- 
section of nave and transept.^ 

This cupola, though of no unusual size and of little 
grace of design, presents such marked irregularity in 
the lines and dimensions of its several sides as to be 
one of those puzzles of construction that many Italian 
buildings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries offer 
to the architect, and in which the Duomo at Siena 
abounds. § It is plain that the builders of that time 
worked upon a much looser plan, paid less attention 
to exactness of line and measure, and were less re- 
gardful of symmetry in corresponding parts than the 

* Historia, parte ii. p. 20 b. t Archivio del Diwmo, Perg. 254, 270. 

t Milanesi, Doamientt, i. 145. 

§ See Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, " Architektur," pp. loi, 131. 



126 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

builders of a later period. And it is at least an open 
question whether the irregularities which their works 
display, when not carried so far as to attract attention 
to the want of conformity, be not a source of pleasure 
to the eye and of intended perspective effects unat- 
tained in more exact and symmetrical construction.* 

It aQ:rees with the view that the Duomo was at 
this time near completion, according to the plan then 
followed, to find that the next existing record relates 
to an accessory work, of no structural importance, but 
essential for the due performance of service within 
the cathedral walls — namely, the construction of a pul- 
pit worthy of the building in which it was to stand. 
In 1260 Niccola Pisano had designed and sculptured 
the famous pulpit which, originally intended for the 
Duomo at Pisa, now stands, altered in its proportions, 
in the neighboring baptistery. It was a work such as 
Italy had not seen before — the sign of a new life in 
art ; the proof of a new life in society. It was not the 
tentative effort of uncertain emotion and unskilled 
workmanship, but the deliberate product of a self-con- 

* At Siena there is not merely a slight difference in the size of cor- 
respondent piers, but in many of them the centres, as well as the cir- 
cumscribing lines of the bases and capitals, are out of line one with 
another, so that there is a curiously delicate difference in the curves 
and angles of the vaulting ribs ; but there are also more conspicuous 
irregularities which can hardly be defended as within the limits of 
good effect, and which seem the r£sult of careless building — such, for 
example, as the break in the line of the cornice over the arches of the 
nave at the point where the two last arches towards the fagade con- 
nect with the others. See Appendix II. "Irregularities of Construc- 
tion in Italian Buildings of the Middle Ages." 



NICCOLA PISANO. 1 27 

fident and well-trained genius — a genius, indeed, not 
yet completely master of the principles, or even the 
methods, of sculpture, but far advanced on the way 
to their discovery and application, and already capa- 
ble of giving noble expression to its own conception. 
The feeling for art — especially for art at once deco- 
rative in character and religious in motive, which was 
one of the most marked traits of the revival of the na- 
tional spirit in Italy — led to the rapid spread of Nic- 
cola's fame. 

' The artist in sympathy with his generation is the 
soul and hand by which its imperfect ideals are 
shaped for it into definite forms. The appreciation 
of his contemporaries is his highest and most in- 
spiring stimulant. And this appreciation is the es- 
sential condition for the production of works that, ris- 
ing above the level of personal fancy and the demand 
of personal caprice, succeed in passing the narrow lim- 
its of individual experience, and give new and just ex- 
pression to emotions, sentiments, and conceptions com- 
mon to a race. It was the characteristic of this pe- 
riod, in which the flush of a fresh consciousness of 
national existence was felt throughout Italy, that archi- 
tecture and sculpture afforded expression to the deep- 
est sentiments, patriotic or religious as they might be, 
of the nation, and answered with completest recogni- 
tion to that intense demand for utterance which such 
sentiments create in the breasts of an ardent, poetic, 
and emotional people in the early stages of national 



128 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

life. The place of these arts was to be taken in later 
generations by poetry and by painting; but at this time 
they were the best suited to the needs of the people. • 

It was under conditions such as these that Niccola's 
powers had developed. His works, the best in their 
kind, were competed for by distant as well as by neigh- 
boring cities. Siena, induced by his fame, and eager 
to have a pulpit worthy of her cathedral — one that 
should at least rival the pulpit of Pisa — applied to Nic- 
cola to construct and carve one for her. He under- 
took the commission, and the contract between Fra 
Melano, " operarius operis sancte Marie majoris eccle- 
sie Senensis," and "magister Nicolus lapidum de pa- 
roccia ecclesie sancti Blasii de ponte de Pisis," still 
exists in the Sienese archives. It is an interesting 
document in its illustration of the practical conditions 
under which the greatest artist of the thirteenth cen- 
tury — the Giotto of sculpture — led his life and did his 
work. The instrument is dated October 5, 1266.* 

Niccola must have previously furnished a design 
which had been accepted, for he binds himself to de- 
liver, within a month, at Pisa, to Fra Melano or his 
agent, eleven columns with their capitals, seven pieces 
of marble for the arches, and eight for the spaces be- 
tween them, seven other slabs, and sixteen small col- 
umns, besides such other pieces as were necessary for 

* It is printed by Milanesi, Documetttz, i. 145. An abstract of it, not 
altogether accurate, may be found in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History 
of Paint i77g in Italy, i. 131 — a book important as a repertory of infor- 
mation, but deficient in higher respects. 



CONTRACT FOR THE PULPIT. j2g 

the construction of the pulpit, excepting what were re- 
quired for the foundation and the stairs, and excepting 
also the lions and the "pedestals" of the eleven col- 
umns first mentioned. All these were to be of Car- 
rara marble, and the price agreed upon for them was 
sixty-five lire in Pisan money, "libras denar. pisanor."* 
Niccola further bound himself to go to Siena in the 
following March, and there to reside until the pulpit 
should be finished ; and to undertake during this time 
no other work without express permission from Fra 
Melano or his successor as operarius. He was, how- 
ever, to be at liberty to spend a fortnight at Pisa four 
times a year, in the interest of the work on the ca- 
thedral and baptistery there — "ad consiliandum ipsa 
opera, et etiam pro suis ipsius magistri Niccholi factis 
propriis." He was further to bring with him from 
Pisa two of his scholars, Arnolfo and Lapo, with leave 
to add a third to their number, to assist him on the 
work, and to remain with him at Siena till its comple- 
tion, or at least for so long as the term of apprentice- 
ship for which they were bound to him might extend. 
He was also to be at liberty to bring with him his son 
Giovanni. His own salary was to be eight soldi a day ; 
but it was to be paid — and this provision is worth not- 

* Crowe and Cavalcaselle make the mistake of saying that he agreed 
to deUver these marbles at Siena, and that " he was also to furnish the 
lions or pediments " \_sic\ adding, by way of explanation, " which prob- 
ably were to be found ready made at Pisa." In view of the purely 
exceptional genius displayed in the design and sculpture of the lions 
of the Sienese pulpit, this supposition is curiously absurd, 

9 



130 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

ing — only for the days on which he should be actually 
at work or directing work, " pro singulo die quo in ipso 
opere laborabit et faciet laborari." His scholars were 
each to be paid six soldi a day ; and his son, if Nic- 
cola chose to bring him, should be paid, or his father 
should be paid for him, four soldi a day. Niccola and 
his scholars were further to be free from every tax or 
civic claim, "omnibus servitiis realibus et personalibus," 
during their stay at Siena, and were to be provided 
with board and lodging, " hospitium et lectos." The 
parties being bound under heavy penalties to all these 
agreements, the contract was signed and duly wit- 
nessed in the Baptistery at Pisa. 

The work, thus undertaken, was rapidly accom- 
plished. On the 6th of November, 1268, Niccola gave 
to Fra Melano a final receipt for the sum due to him, 
his son, and his scholars on account of wages, and a 
discharge from all obligations and compacts. Two 
years was certainly a brief time for the construction 
and sculpture of a work so elaborate in design, so 
careful in execution, as this pulpit. Of all the works 
of Niccola, none affords a fuller expression of his gen- 
ius or displays more maturity of power. In compari- 
son with the pulpit at Pisa, it shows a more advanced 
study of nature and living forms, and a greater facility 
of composition. The simplicity of composition visible 
in the bass-reliefs of the earlier work, and the direct 
imitation of classic models in the pose and character 
of certain figures, are here exchanged for richer and 



DESCRIPT/ON OF THE PULPIT. j^j 

more complicate designs, in which the tendency tow- 
ards imitation of antique art is overborne by the 
lively dramatic spirit of the artist, and by the free- 
dom gained from confidence in his own powers.*' His 
later work shows the hand of one conscious of being 
a master. 

The body of the pulpit is octagonal in form, one side 
being left open for entrance ; the others are filled with 
bass-reliefs, separated from each other at the angles by 
admirable figures of virtues and angels. The bass- 
reliefs represent in order the Nativity, the Adoration of 
the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Flight 
into Egypt, the Massacre of the Innocents, the Cruci- 
fixion, and the Last Judgment! 

In purity of style, the best of these sculptures are 
those in which the composition is most simple and 
least crowded, as the Nativity and the Adoration ; 
but as a master of dramatic effect, Niccola exhibits 
his highest power in the Massacre of the Innocents, 
in which the violent action and passionate expression 
of single figures are rendered with a force and truth of 
characterization that leave little to be desired. Sculpt- 
ure showed itself here capable once more, after long 

* Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, p. 563, seems to attribute this difference 
to the influence upon his father of Giovanni — "der jiingere Meister 
des dramatischen Ausdruckes behalt das Feld." But Giovanni was 
plainly too young at this time to affect his father's style. It is not sur- 
prising that his own undoubted works of a subsequent time should par- 
take of the spirit of the later rather than the earlier works of his father. 

t The first, second, third, sixth, and seventh represent the same sub- 
jects as those of the five bass-reliefs of the Pisan pulpit. 



I -^2 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 



disability, of displaying correspondence of emotion in 
face and gesture. The intricacy and fulness of this and 
the succeeding compositions reveal, however, the ten- 
dency which afterwards prevailed in Italian sculpture, 
and reached its height in the works of Ghiberti, towards 
a pictorial method essentially in contradiction with the 
principles on which sculpture, as a special art, properly 
rests. Italian sculpture is, from its beginning, pictur- 
esque and romantic as contrasted with the antique and 
classic work. It exchanges dignity, tranquillity, and 
simplicity for variety and liveliness. Niccola is the 
first, and one would say the greatest, of the long line 
of romantic sculptors, if Michael Angelo were not the 
last. 

In its architectural construction, no less than in the 
character of its bass-reliefs, the Sienese pulpit shows 
the advance that Niccola had made in the six years 
since the Pisan pulpit was completed. The body of 
the Sienese pulpit rests upon arches, in whose span- 
drels are set figures of prophets and apostles. The 
arches spring from eight columns, which stand on a 
wide and well-proportioned platform ; a ninth, central, 
column supports the pulpit floor, and rests on a base 
adorned with seven finely designed female figures, sym- 
bolizing the seven sciences, and indicating by their po- 
sition the subjection of human knowledge to divine 
wisdom. Of the other columns, four have simple 
bases, two rest each on the back of a lion, and the 
remaining two each on the back of a lioness giving 



COMPLETION OF THE PULPIT. j^, 

suck to her cubs. These are the first realistic repre- 
sentations of living animals which the mediaeval revi- 
val of art had produced ; and in vivacity and energy 
of rendering, in the thoroughly artistic treatment of 
leonine spirit and form, they have never been sur- 
passed. ' Niccola had learned and knew how to apply 
the fundamental principle of his art — the principle of 
absolute truth to nature in imaginative no less than in 
direct representation.* ' 

The six centuries that have passed since the pulpit 
was completed have mellowed the hue of its marbles, 
and thus added to its beauty more than they have 
taken from it of its original perfection. And if it be 
as well guarded from accident and wilful injury hence- 
forth as it has been hitherto, it may last for twice as 
many centuries yet, one of the most precious and en- 
tire monuments of the arts of the early revival in 
Italy. 

After the completion of the pulpit some years seem 
to have passed during which no new work of impor- 
tance was undertaken. A record, however, of the year 
1 2 71 relates to a curious ceremony performed within 
the Duomo, and to a custom that illustrates the temper 

* Burckhardt speaks of these lions as " durch antike Anregung ganz 
lebendig gewordenen Thierbilder." But they show less of antique sug- 
gestion or classical influence than of study of nature. The figures of 
animals on the sarcophagi at Pisa, which were Niccola's instructors, 
are inferior to his work alike as natural or imaginative representa- 
tions. Niccola's technical method proves his close study of classic 
remains, but his later artistic style is that of an independent master, 
whose strokes are the expression of his own genius. 



134 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

of the period. At this time the Guelfs had gained the 
upperhand in Siena, and were retaliating the wrongs 
they had suffered by exiling some of the chief Ghibel- 
Hnes, tearing down their houses, and reducing their 
strongholds in the neighboring country. Having been 
successful in a recent expedition, and having taken 
many prisoners, it was ordered, by a vote of the Gen- 
eral Council on the 3d of June, 1271, that five pris- 
oners, enumerated by name, should be released, and 
" offered at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary for 
the victory vouchsafed to us over the enemies of the 
commune." * 

The release of certain prisoners on the Feast of the 
Assumption, in honor of the Virgin, to whom they 
were presented before the altar in the Duomo, was a 
custom long practised by the Sienese. Instances of it 
occur more than a century after this time. The mo- 
tive partook more of superstition than of humanity. 
The sufferings of prisoners during the Middle Ages 
were horrible. The common treatment of them was 

* Consiglio della Campana, xiv. 30. The Church of St. Christopher, 
where the Council held its sessions, had lately been greatly injured by 
the fall of the Palace and Tower of the Salvani, the demolition of which 
had been ordered by the commune to reduce the power of the great 
Ghibelline family, of which Provenzano Salvani, famous through Dante's 
mention of him (^Purgatory, xi. 121), had been the head. He had fallen 
in battle in 1269, and the commune took advantage of his death to de- 
stroy his house. For some months the Piazza of San Cristofano was 
encumbered with the ruins. The commune, taking the fault of the in- 
jury to the church upon itself, appointed Fra Melano to conduct the 
necessary repairs, according to the estimate, at a cost of not more than 
two hundred lire. Consiglio della Campana, xiv. 10, 21, 23, 87 ; xv. 50. 



PIER PETTIGNANO. j^c 

a mingling of cruelty and neglect. Multitudes pined 
and starved and died without help. Men looked on 
them as either criminals or enemies to whom no pity 
was due. 

There was one man, however, at this time in Siena 
who felt compassion for those languishing in captivity, 
and was known to the city as their friend. When 
Dante met the Sienese gentlewoman Sapia in Purga- 
tory, she told him that she should not have advanced 
so far towards the end of her penance, had it not been 
that Pier Pettignano, grieving for her through charity, 
had remembered her in his holy prayers.* 

Pier Pettignano, Peter the Combmaker, was known 
and honored in Siena for his good deeds ; he grieved 
through charity for all who were in suffering, and he 
visited and ministered to those who were in prison. 
The record remains of a debate in the Council of the 
Bell, on the nth of August, 1282, concerning the 
release of prisoners for the approaching Feast of the 
Assumption.! In this debate it was urged that Pier 
Pettignano be empowered to select from the crowd of 
prisoners those who should be delivered. The argu- 
ment by which the proposal was supported has not 
been preserved, but it doubtless rested either on the 
probity of his character, which gave assurance that his 
selection would be uninfluenced by personal or partisan 
considerations, or on his acquaintance with the prisons, 

* Purgatory, xiii. 128. 

t See App. I. " Documents relating to the Duomo of Siena." No. V. 



136 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

which qualified him to determine who among the pris- 
oners were most deserving of release.* 

During these years there was constant work on the 
cathedral. Its outside was still incomplete. Like so 
many of the finest churches, it was furnished with only 
a plain substantial front wall, intended to serve as the 
backing and support of an ornamental fapade. The 
principle of Gothic building, that every part, including 
what might seem at first sight as mere ornament, 
should have a constructive value, was never adopted 
by Italian builders. They made iron bars and firm 
mortar do the work of good construction, and they fast- 
ened on their ornament in what forms or in what place 
they chose, with little regard to any principle but that 
of picturesque effect. Of this they were consummate 
masters, and the style of architecture which is conse- 
quently characteristic of Italy, and in which Italian 
architects have never been surpassed, is that in which 
incrusted takes the place of constructive ornament, so 
that there is a double building, the interior hidden 
solid frame, and the exterior visible ornamental shell. 
When they adopted Gothic forms, the builders still 

* Co7isiglio dclla Cainpana, xxvi. 11 : "Jacobus Domini Renaldi Gilii 
consuluit et dixit quod Pierus Pettinarius hinc ad diem beate Marie 
Virginis debeat invenire X ex pregionibus Comunis Senarum pauperi- 
oribus quos invenire poterit, et illi quos inveniret relaxentur." See also 
Consiglio dclla Campatia, xxxviii. 65, 28th of December, 1290. 

On the 1 8th of December, 1290, the Council voted that two hundred 
lire be given to the Minor Friars for a noble tomb to be erected in 
their church over the grave of S. Pier Pettignano, " con ciborio ed al- 
tare," with pyx and altar. 



FACADE OF THE DUO MO, ^Xl 

built according to Roman tradition, and the outside ap- 
pearance often had Httle relation but that of contiguity 
with the inner and essential framework. This was the 
case at Siena. 

The work on the interior of the Duomo having 
reached such a point that no great expenditure upon 
it was required, the authorities in charge determined 
about 1280 to adorn the exterior with a facade which 
should excel all other similar structures in Tuscany, 
and should testify by its magnificence to the steadily 
held resolve to express in the splendor of the building 
the piety and the pride of the people. Giovanni Pisano, 
who had now acquired reputation almost equal to that 
which his father had enjoyed as the best artist in Italy, 
was employed to give the design for the facade and 
to oversee its construction. The work was begun in 
1284, and pushed rapidly forward. Although in sub- 
sequent times the facade has suffered many changes, 
yet the general features of the original design are prob- 
ably preserved in the existing front. Lifted on a wide 
platform, to which eleven broad steps lead up" from the 
level of the surrounding piazza, the white marble piers, 
gables, and pinnacles rise fronting the west, dazzling 
the eye with gilded decorations, crowded with statues 
and busts of prophets, apostles, and saints, with sym- 
bolic figures of animals and with sculptured ornament. 
On the peak of the central gable stands the figure of 
the angel of the Annunciation, while on the deep blue 
stellated field of the gable itself is set a gilded statue 



138 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

of the Madonna of the Assumption surrounded by a 
glory of rays that flash in the bright sunlight. The 
effect of the facade is brilliant beyond that of any 
other church-front in Tuscany. It is a showy pile of 
ornamental work, by an artist skilled in picturesque 
composition ; but it has not the grace or elegance 
characteristic of the best Italian designs. It wants 
simplicity ; its general proportions fail in grandeur and 
its lines in dignity. It is costly and elaborate, it is full 
of interest, but it is not beautiful ; it indicates the 
setting-in of the decline of Italian architecture. The 
contemporary facade of the Duomo at Orvieto is su- 
perior to it in unity of design, in the interesting 
nature of its various parts, and in the splendid color 
of its famous mosaics. There may be, however, some 
unfairness in judging of the original from the pres- 
ent front. Many changes have been made in it in 
different centuries, and their accumulated effect may 
have been to injure the general character of the facade. 
A few years since, the old stone having suffered from 
long exposure, a complete renewal was undertaken; 
the old forms were reproduced, but the old spirit no 
longer inspired them ; the subtile quality of ancient 
excellence refused to be copied. The facade is now a 
brand-new modern reproduction, and suits the taste 
of modern Siena. Of the work of the great days of 
mediaeval sculpture scarcely a trace remains — not a 
fragment that belongs to the school of the Pisani — 
and only about the doors some few venerable mould- 



PENALTY IMPOSED ON GIOVANNI PISANO. i3g 

ings and bits of bass-relief bear witness to the merits 
of the stone-cutters of the early time. 

The construction of so elaborate a facade was not a 
work to be accomplished in a short time. In 1290 
Giovanni Pisano was still employed as " Caput magis- 
trorum operis beate Virginis Marie." At this time, 
however, he came under heavy penalty for some griev- 
ous misdeed ; but, on the ground that without him the 
work on the Duomo could not be well carried on ("sine 
quo magistro Johanne bene perfici non posset"), it was 
proposed to the Council of the Bell to ratify the deci- 
sion of the " eighteen governors and defenders of the 
commune," that the said Giovanni should be restored 
to his place on the work and absolved from the sentence 
pronounced upon him without payment of any fine.* 

It would seem that the popular council refused to 
adopt this proposal, for in October of the same year 
Giovanni paid to the treasury of the commune the 
sum of eight hundred Hre, "pro una condempnatione 
facta de eo in DC libras . . . et solvit tertium plus." 
So heavy a fine implies the commission of a very grave 
offence. 

Meanwhile the cost of building the facade had out- 

* The mode in which it was proposed that this absolution should be 
secured is exceedingly curious : " provisum sit . . . quod magister 
Johannes ... ad laudem, et reverentiam, et honorem gloriose Marie 
semper Virginis offeratur dicto operi, quia dictus magister Johannes sit 
valde utilis et necessarius dicte opere ; cum condempnationibus de eo 
factis ; quod facta dicta oblatione, dicte sue condempnationes cancel- 
lentur de libris Comunis Sen. sine aliqua solutione pecunie." Milanesi, 
Documenti, i. 162. 



I40 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION 

run the funds in the hands of the operarius, and in the 
autumn of this year, 1290, he petitioned the commune 
for a grant of money, without which the work could not 
be carried on — "et laborerium jam inceptum non possit 
ad laudem effectui produci." His prayer was laid before 
the council, and on the 20th of October a grant of 
eight hundred lire, just the amount of Giovanni's fine, 
was voted by a majority of 219 to 12.* Eight years 
afterwards a similar petition was made and a similar 
grant voted by the council. 

Numerous documents in the Archives of the Duomo, 
relating chiefly to the purchase of woodland and quarry, 
indicate activity in building during the early years of 
the fourfeenth century, but no record remains of the 
special work done.t 

It was during this time, however, that the most im- 
portant work of art within the cathedral, with the ex- 
ception of Niccola's pulpit, was commissioned and exe- 
cuted by Duccio, the chief of the painters of Siena. 
The revival of painting was naturally later than that of 
sculpture in Italy. As a more refined and complicate 
art, it requires a higher culture than that demanded 
for the development and appreciation of the simpler 

* Consiglio della Campana, xl." 50. See Appendix I. " Documents re- 
lating to the Duomo of Siena." No. VI, 

t In 1303 the commune conceded to the Opera a tract of land known 
as zl plan del Lago, from which wood and stone were supplied for con- 
struction. Perg. 563. In 1305, 1306, 1308, 13 10 the Opera bought many 
pieces of woodland and quarry, terra boscata e petraja. Perg. 593, 594, 
596,604,605,611,615, Other similar purchases were made in 1319, 
1 32 1, and later years. As one tract was exhausted another was bought. 



DUCCIO DI BONINSEGNA, j - j 

processes, motives, and effects of sculpture. A genera- 
tion passed after Niccola Pisano had opened the way 
of progress, not less to painters than sculptors, before 
the painters of Italy showed that they comprehended 
the lesson taught by his work, and before they gained, 
by taking nature as their model, the power to free their 
art from the bondage to traditional types of representa- 
tion under which it had long lain enslaved and inert. 
Duccio di Boninsegna was the first master of this new 
school in Siena. Unable to liberate himself completely 
from the fetters of ancient methods and conventional 
forms of expression, he yet did succeed in giving to his 
works the stamp of a vigorous originality, and, trusting 
to nature more than his predecessors had done, he 
reached a truth in representation, both of form and of 
expression, and a reality of scenic composition, such 
as they had been unable to attain. Older than Giotto 
by some years, of a less creative imagination, and a 
less poetic temperament, he at times rises almost to 
rivalry with the greatest of Florentine masters in the 
dramatic power of his composition, and the simplicity 
and sincerity of the expression of his single figures. 
He was an innovator, but only to such degree as to 
keep in close harmony with the temper of his advanc- 
ing contemporaries, and to secure their appreciation, 
sympathy, and applause. He had that fondness for 
gay and brilliant color, for elaboration of ornamental 
detail, and for exquisite finish which were afterwards 
characteristic of the Sienese school, and which not 



142 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

seldom give a charm to pictures that have little other 
merit. 

In 1308 Duccio entered into agreement with the 
head of the works to paint a picture for the high-altar 
of the Duomo. It was to be the best he could do, as 
the Lord should give him grace to do it — "quam melius 
poterit et sciverit et Dominus sibi largietur." While 
engaged upon it he was to undertake no other work ; 
his salary was to be at the rate of sixteen soldi a day 
for every day employed upon it — " pro quolibet die, quo 
dictus Duccius laborabit suis manibus in dicta tabula ;" 
all needed materials were to be supplied to him free of 
cost, " so that the said Duccio shall be bound to put 
nothing into it but his own self and his labor " — " ita 
quod dictus Duccius nihil in ea mictere teneatur, nisi 
suam personam et suum laborem." * 

The work was conceived in all the freshness and 
glow of the spirit which was now revivifying the forms 
of painting. It was to be worthy of its destination, and 
in size no less than in character it was intended to sur- 
pass whatever of a similar sort had preceded it in Tus- 
cany. The main panel, fourteen feet long, and seven 
high, w^as set in a rich architectural framework, de- 
signed to afford places for numerous minor scenes and 
separate figures. As the altar stood free in the choir, 
and the altar-piece was to be seen from behind as well 
as from before, both sides were to be covered with 
painting. 

* Archivio del Diioino, Perg. 603 ; Milanesi, Docnmenti, i. 166. 



DUCCIO'S ALTAR-PIECE. I^^ 

The main subject was prescribed to the artist by the 
special devotion of the Sienese to the Virgin. On the 
front of his great panel Duccio represented the Virgin 
enthroned, a sweet and nobly conceived figure, holding 
the infant Christ. On the high back of the throne lean 
four angels, while two on each side support its arms. 
Angels and saints are ranged to the right and left, and 
kneeling before the throne are the four bishops, the 
protectors of the city. On the cushioned stool on 
which the feet of the Virgin rest, the artist inscribed 
the following pious and proud petition : 

Mater • Sancta • Dei • Sis • Caussa • Senis • Requiei • 
Sis • Ducio • Vita • Te • Quia • Depinxit • Ita • 

On the back of the altar-piece Duccio painted the 
chief scenes of the Passion in a series of twenty-six 
compositions, in which the dramatic quality of his gen- 
ius finds full expression, while the inspiration that he 
drew from nature justifies their claim to rank among 
the best of the early productions of modern creative 
art. The series has been compared with that of the 
same subject by Giotto in the Arena Chapel at Padua. 
The comparison is unfair to it. The genius of Giotto 
was solitary in moral intensity and in poetic sentiment. 
But, as independent and imaginative conceptions, ex- 
pressed with a power and freedom hitherto quite un- 
known in Sienese art, Duccio's pictures deserve a very 
high place of honor. 

Nearly two years had passed since Duccio undertook 
the commission before the altar-piece was ready to be 



144 -S"^^^^' ^^^ O^^ LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

set in its place in the Duomo. It was on the 9th of 
June, 1 3 10, that this "the most beautiful picture that 
ever was seen or made, and that cost more than three 
thousand golden florins," as the chronicler Tura del 
Grasso reports, was carried from the workshop of the 
artist to the cathedral. The day was a festival for the 
Sienese. Another chronicler, whose name is not known, 
but whose work is preserved in manuscript in the 
Communal Library of Siena, gives an account of the 
celebration. He says, " At this time the altar-piece for 
the high-altar was finished, and the picture which was 
called the ' Madonna with the large eyes,' or Our Lady 
of Grace, that now hangs over the altar of St. Boni- 
face, was taken down. Now this Our Lady was she 
who had hearkened to the people of Siena when the 
Florentines were routed at Monte Aperto, and her 
place was changed because the new one was made, 
which is far more beautiful and devout and larger, and 
is painted on the back with the stories of the Old and 
New Testament. * And on the day that it was carried 
to the Duomo the shops were shut, and the bishop 
conducted a great and devout company of priests and 
friars in solemn procession, accompanied by the nine 
signiors, and all the officers of the commune, and all 
the people, and one after another the worthiest with 
lighted candles in their hands took places near the 
picture, and behind came the women and children with 
great devotion. And they accompanied the said pict- 
ure up to the Duomo, making the procession around 



i 



ALTAR-PIECE CARRIED TO THE DUOMO. i^c 

the Campo, as is the custom, all the bells ringing joy- 
ously, out of reverence for so noble a picture as is this. 
And this picture Duccio di Niccolo the painter made, 
and it was made in the house of the Muciatti outside 
the gate a Stalloreggi. And all that day they stood in 
prayer with great almsgiving for poor persons, praying 
God and his Mother, who is our advocate, to defend us 
by their infinite mercy from every adversity and all 
evil, and keep us from the hands of traitors and of the 
enemies of Siena." An entry in the book of public 
accounts of the commune completes the picturesque 
narrative, which reminds the reader of the story of the 
rejoicings in Florence with which Cimabue's famous 
Madonna was accompanied some years earlier to its 
place in Sta. Maria Novella. The entry runs thus: 
" Spent on the transportation of the picture painted by 
Duccio, Lire 12 Soldi 10, paid to the sounders of 
trumpets, cymbals, and drums for having gone to meet 
the said picture."* 

For nearly two hundred years this magnificent work 
of religious art stood in its place of honor over the 
high-altar. By degrees the spirit of the Renaissance 
of the fifteenth century so took possession of the 
Sienese that they no longer cared for their ancient and 
historic treasure. In 1506 it was taken down from the 

* Milanesi, Dociimenti, i. 169. It seems that the whole work on the 
altar-piece was not finished at the time of its setting-up over the high- 
altar, and in November, 13 10, provision is made that " in laborerio nove 
et magne tabule beate Marie semper Virginis gloriose, sollicite et cum 
omni diligentia procedatur." Milanesi, Documcnti, i. 175. 
10 



1^6 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

altar, and its place filled by an elaborate bronze taber- 
nacle, in the depraved taste of the later time. Even its 
character as an altar-piece was destroyed; front and 
back were divided and hung upon the wall at opposite 
ends of the transept ; the beautiful architectural frame- 
work was broken up ; the gradino, painted on one side 
with figures of the Apostles, on the other with scenes 
from the life of the Virgin, was sawn in pieces, and its 
dismembered fragments were scattered over the walls 
of the adjoining sacristy. It is fortunate that the wanton 
iconoclasts of the Renaissance did not shove the whole 
picture into some damp lumber-room, where it might 
have been utterly destroyed, as so many of the rarest 
works of the early time have been, by mould and vermin. 
Early in the fourteenth century, not many years after 
the cathedral had been adorned with Duccio's altar- 
piece, a work was taken in hand which had long been 
in consideration, and which, as finally accomplished, 
produced a great change in the form and aspect of 
the Duomo. A small and old church, dedicated to St. 
John the Baptist, and used as a baptistery, stood on 
the cathedral square in inconvenient neighborhood to 
the great building. It was now resolved to carry out 
an old intention to tear down this old church and to 
build a new baptistery in a place where it should not 
interfere with the approach to the Duomo.* 

* In 1297, " Fu rimesso nei Nove I'affare della Chiesa di San Gio- 
vanni che secondo il Capitolo dello Statuto doveva demolirsi e riedifi- 
carsi in altro luogo." ConsigHo dclla Campana, Hi. 25. Nothing was then 
done, as appears from Co7isiglio della Campana, liii. 23, 1298. In 131 5 a 



THE NE W BAP TIS TER Y. j . - 

The precise date of the beginning of the work is un- 
certain, but it was not far from 1 3 1 5 that the founda- 
tions of the new church were laid. The site chosen 
for it was immediately behind the Duomo, where the 
ground fell off precipitously, and the design contem- 
plated not only the building of the baptistery on this 
lower level, but the extension of the choir of the Duo- 
mo over it, so that the floor of the upper church should 
serve as the ceiling of the lower, and the external walls 
of the two churches form a continuous and harmonious 
structure. There was to be no interior passage be- 
tween the churches, but communication was to be 
maintained by a broad flight of external steps leading 
from the level of the entrance to the baptistery up to 
the square of the Duomo. The design was striking 
from its novelty and its boldness. The Sienese were 
always venturesome builders, not easily turned aside 
from their resolves by difficulties that might have ap- 
palled a people less secure in the resources of their 
arts and of their wealth. The work was rapidly 
pushed forward, but the design did not meet with 
unanimous approval, and in 1322 five expert master 
builders were called upon by the authorities of the 
commune to give their opinion as to its merits and the 
probabihty of its successful completion. Chief among 
these advisers was Lorenzo Maitani, the renowned ar- 

beginning was perhaps made. Consiglio dcUa Campana, Ixxxvi. 33. In 
the chronicle ascribed to Giovanni Bisdomini it is said that the facade 
of the new church of San Giovanni was begun in 131 7. 



I .3 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

chitect of the Cathedral of Orvieto, over the building 
of which, begun more than thirty years before, he was 
at this time presiding. The five skilled builders united 
in the opinion that the work should not be proceeded 
with, on the grounds that the foundation and walls of 
the new structure were not of sufficient strength, con- 
sidering the great height to which the walls must be 
carried; that the junction of the new structure with 
the old could not be effected without great risk to the 
stability of the existing edifice ; that the proposed ex- 
tension would throw the dome "out of the centre of 
the cross" — "non remaneret in medio crucis ut rationa- 
biliter remanere deberet ;" that the proportions of the 
Duomo would be injured and the required relations of 
length, breadth, and height — " ut jura ecclesie postu- 
lant" — would not be preserved. As a sequel to this 
discouraging report, they advised the construction of an 
entirely new church, "beautiful, great, and magnificent" 
— " pulcra, magnia \_sic\ et magnifica, que sit bene pro- 
portionata . . . cum omnibus fulgidis ornamentis ... ad 
hoc, ut noster dominus Jesus Christus et eius Mater 
sanctissima, eiusque curia celestis altissima, in ipsa ec- 
clesia benedicatur, et collaudetur in ynnis, et dictum 
Comune Sen. ab eis semper protegatur aversis et per- 
petuo honoretur." * 

This discouraging advice was no sooner given than 



* Archivio del Dicomo, Perg. 667. Printed by Delia Valle, Lettere 
Sanest, ii. 60; by Rumohr, Italienische Forschungett, ii. 129; and by 
Milanesi, Docuvienti, i. 186. 



DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING THE WORK. i^q 

the operarius, or overseer of the works, took measures 
to have a meeting called " of seventy-five of the best and 
wisest men of the city," that he might be guided by their 
opinion as to the course to be followed. The meeting 
was held in the palace of the commune, and, after full 
discussion, came to the conclusion that the affair was too 
serious to be determined except by the General Coun- 
cil, before which it was resolved to bring it. Accord- 
ingly, on the 27th of March the matter was laid before 
the Council by one of the counsellors of the operariiis* 
An animated debate ensued ; no voice was raised to 
advocate the adoption of the proposal to construct a 
new cathedral, the old one was good and beautiful 
enough, and it was strongly urged that even the project 
of extending it should be given up, and that it should 
not in any wise be touched — "dicta vetus ecclesia nullo 
modo debeat tangi." But this counsel was not accept- 
able to those who saw what added majesty would be 
given to their Duomo by boldly lengthening it over 
the new baptistery, and a vigorous resolution proposed 
by Messer Vecchietta degli Accarigi, " that in the 
name of Almighty God and the Blessed Virgin Mary 
his mother, the work should be steadily proceeded 
with, and proceeded with according to the plan on 
which it had been undertaken," was adopted by a ma- 
jority of 149 to 73 votes.! 

* At this time there was what seems to have been a Board of Works, 
consisting of the operarius and five "consiHarii." 

t " Dominus Vecchietta de Accherigiis surgens in dicto consilio, ad 
dicetorium arengando super dicta proposita, et hiis que et de quibus in 



I50 



SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 



In accordance with this resolve the work was vig- 
orously carried on for a time, but, whether the unfa- 
vorable and disheartening opinion of the consulting 
architects gradually took effect in diminishing the zeal 
of the people for the undertaking, or whether some 
other cause operated to the same result, it appears that 
in the course of a few years the funds for construction 
fell off, and the building made little or no progress. 
At last, in 1333, the dissatisfaction at this state of 
things reached such a point that the operarius was 
urged by many "judicious persons, lovers of the 
Church" — "bonos et sapientes viros, homines fide dig- 
nos, amatores operis majoris ecclesie Senarum " — to 
complete rapidly the construction of the rough exte- 
rior walls of the building, which could be done at com- 
paratively little cost, and to postpone their adornment 
with a marble facing to a later and more prosperous 
time. Thus, at least, both the great Duomo and the 
baptistery might be rendered fit, without much further 
delay, for the services and ceremonies of the Church. 
Upon this appeal the operarius called several master 
builders into council, and, having laid the case before 
them, they unanimously agreed in recommending the 
adoption of the proposed course.* 

Their counsel was followed, and to this day the 

ea continentur et mentio fit, dixit et consuluit quod in nomine omnipo- 
tentis Dei et beate Marie virginis matris eius, in dicto opere continue 
procedatur, et procedi debeat prout inceptum est," Consiglio dcUa Cam- 
pana, xcvi. 74. A brief extract from the proceedings may be found in 
Milanesi, Documettiz, iii. 275. 
* Milanesi, Dociimenti, i. 204. 



OB LA TES. J c I 

eastern end of the Duomo, built boldly above the 
baptistery, and rising high over the narrow valley be- 
neath, remains, like so many of the most splendid 
churches in Italy, destitute of the marble facing that 
should have concealed and covered with beauty its 
rough and ugly wall. 

A curious illustration of the character of the times 
and of the popular feehng towards the church is af- 
forded by a document bearing date in this same year, 
1333, by which the operarius pledged himself to afford 
support during their lives to one Master Guccio and 
his wife, Mina, who had given themselves as " oblates," 
with all their property, to the church, devoting them- 
selves and their means to the advance of the work. 
And, besides support during their life, the operarius 
further bound himself to see that the survivor of the 
two should after death receive honorable sepulture, 
and that due funeral rites should be performed for 
him or her, as it might be. Such devotion of one's 
self and one's property to works for the service of the 
Lord had not been uncommon during those centuries, 
in which men and women were actuated by an earnest 
and sincere faith in the dogmatic teachings of the 
Church. To any one of lively imagination it was but 
little to give up the brief present joys of material life, 
and to offer himself and all that he might possess to 
the service of Him who had promised to reward his 
servants with endless and unutterable satisfactions. 
The fear of suffering: for sin — the awful dread of hell 



IC2 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

— quickened the readiness to make whatever sacrifices 
were needed for exemption from penalty. Justifica- 
tion by works was not then strictly divided from jus- 
tification by faith, and it was honestly believed that to 
do good deeds and to make sacrifices for the Lord s 
sake was at least as virtuous as to believe aright and 
have confidence in the Lord's sacrifice as the atone- 
ment for one's own sins. The same spirit that led men 
to venture life and fortune in the Crusades led them to 
give themselves to any labor that tended directly to 
the honor of the Saviour or of the blessed Mother of 
God." * 

The zeal exhibited by Master Guccio and his wife, 
Mina, was, however, not common in these days. Siena 
had been growing rich, and as her wealth increased the 
offerings of her piety seem to have diminished. But 
although the operarms was stinted for the means to 
carry the building to completion, the cathedral itself 
still remained an object of prime interest to the Si- 

* See Du Cange, Gloss, art. *' Oblati." The document referred to in 
the text begins, " Anno Domini millesimo trecentesimo trigesimo tertio, 
inditione prima, die quinto mensis junii. Certum est quod tu magister 
Guccius, ohm Golli, infrascriptus, pro te ipso, et vice et nomine domine 
Mine uxoris tue, ad honorem Dei, et beate Marie virginis matris eius, 
obtuHsti te, et donasti titulo donationis inter vivos, mihi Balduccio 
Contis Ciaccacontis, civi Senensi, operario operis beate Marie virginis 
de Senis, pro dicto opere stipulanti, unara domum positam Senis in 
populo Abbatie Arcus . . . et duas domos contiguas positas Senis in 
populo Sancti Donati, . . . et etiam donasti mihi pro dicto opere stipu- 
lanti, omnia bona tua et etiam lucrum tue persone totius tempore vite 
tue, et si extra domos dicti operis laborares aliquo tempore, lucrum 
quod inde faceres vel haberes sit et esse debeat operis supradicti." 
Arch, di Stato, Opera Metrop. di Siena, Anno 1333. 



REVISION OF THE STATUTE. 1^3 

enese. It was the custom in Siena, as in many other 
of the free cities of Italy during the Middle Ages, to 
make frequent revision of its constitution or codified 
statutes, for the purpose of modifying them as the 
changes of time and circumstance might require. The 
work of revision, which included the codification, or 
adaptation to the Statuto, of such enactments as had 
been made since the previous revisal and compilation, 
was usually intrusted to some jurist of repute, often 
a citizen of another city, or to a number of persons 
learned in the law. The statute as revised was sub- 
mitted for examination and discussion to the popular 
assembly ; and, if found acceptable, was adopted by 
formal vote, thus becoming the fundamental law of the 
State, and superseding the statute previously in vigor. 
Since 1260, the date of the earliest existing statute, 
there had been numerous revisions of this sort. But, 
whatever the changes in the form of the code, what- 
ever the fluctuations of popular feeling in other mat- 
ters as expressed by alterations of the fundamental 
law, the provisions concerning the cathedral always 
held a foremost place in the statute under which the 
republic was governed. Thus, in 1334, when, on the 
recommendation of a commission of thirteen learned 
men — "tredecim sapientes viros statutarios civitatis Se- 
narum" — certain new enactments were embodied in 
the statute, there was one among them providing for 
the better progress of the work on the Duomo.* 
* As this ordinance shows the method of procedure proposed for 



154 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

A few years later, in 1337, a complete revision of the 
Statutes was made, and the first article of the new Con- 
stitution related to " the protection and defence of the 
greater church of the Blessed Virgin Mary." * It was 

the furtherance of the work, and as, I believe, it has never been 
printed, I give the text in full : 

"DE PROVIDENDO QUOMODO IN OPERE SANCTE MARIE MELIUS 
PROCEDATUR. 

" In primis statutum et ordinatum est pro evidenti melioramento 
operis Sancte Marie et hedificationis maioris ecclesie Senensis : Quod 
de mense iulii proxime accessuro, postquam electi fuerint operarius, 
scriptor, et consiliarii novi dicti operis, Domini Novem, qui de dicto 
mense iulii in offitio residebunt, teneantur et debeant vinculo iura- 
menti consiliarios dicti operis qui nunc in offitio resident, et etiam alios 
consiliarios dicti operis novos pro futuris sex mensibus eligendos com- 
pellere et compelli facere in simul convenire et super dicto opere dili- 
genter providere quecumque viderint fore utilia, et meliora pro con- 
structione, et melioramento, accelleratione, et evidenti utilitate operis 
prelibati. Et omnia et singula que dicti consiliarii tarn novi quam 
veteres in simul providebunt, in predictis vel eorum occasione, tenean- 
tur et debeant omnino referre offitio dominorum Novem. Ac deinde 
dictum offitium dominorum Novem, una cum aliis ordinibus civitatis 
Senarum, et dictis consiliariis veteribus et novis, super dicta materia et 
relatis per dictos consiliarios, diligenter, sapienter, et bene teneantur et 
debeant providere. Et quecumque in predictis, et super predictis, de- 
libcraverint et providerint, valeant et teneant et executioni plenarie ac 
effectualiter demandentur per operarium operis memorati, ac si per 
generale consilium campane comunis et populi Senarum foret suffi- 
center et solenniter reformata." Statuti di Siena, xviii. c. 383. 

* In the records of the Consiglio dclla Campatia of the nth of 
August, 1337, it appears that the new compilation of the Statutes 
of Siena being completed by the labor " del sapiente uomo Niccola 
d' Angelo da Orvieto," it was resolved that it should be examined, 
emended, and corrected so far as there was occasion. Cotts. dell 
Ca7>ip. cxxi. 15, 

The statute as adopted begins as follows : 

" In nomine Dei amen. Incipit prima distinctio constituti comunis 
Senarum. 

" De protectione et defensione maioris ecclesie beate Marie virginis, 
et episcopatus Senarum, et eorum bonorum et jurium, et quod in opere 



THE STATUTE OF 1337. j ^ ^ 

still the most important affair of the community, for it 
was the visible expression of their continued devotion 
to the Virgin, the protectress of the city, and it was 
becoming that their statute should begin with provi- 
sions that might seem to invoke her favor on the peo- 

dicte ecclesie continuo sit unus custos, et unus operarius, et unus 
scriptor, et sex consiliarii, et de ipsorum consilii officio." 

This distinction of the statute also embraced rules for the election 
of the operarius, and for the offerings to be made at the Feast of the 
Madonna in August. The operarius was to be a man " sciens legere et 
scribere, qui habeat pro suo salario quolibet mense libras quinque dena- 
riorum. Et possit dare libere de vino dicti operis servientibus in dicto 
opere prout eidem videbitur pro melioramento ipsius operis." This 
last clause gave a final settlement to a long-standing grievance. Thirty- 
years before, in 1308, a petition had been presented to the Signori Nove, 
the magistracy of Siena, and by them referred to the General Council, 
from the masters and laborers on the cathedral, stating that they were 
not supplied with wine from the opera, and begging, for the love of the 
Virgin, that the wine coming from the vineyards that had been given 
to the opera for the good of the work might be allowed to them, " for 
otherwise they must go to drink at the taverns or at their own houses, 
for they cannot labor all day without drinking, and thus the work suf- 
fers great harm, and to save one penny it loses twelve in the time 
that is wasted by the workmen in going and coming." Arch, del 
Duonio, Libra di Document i Artistici, No. i . 

Besides the operarius, there was to be a good scribe attached to the 
works, who was to act as secretary to a council of six good men to be 
chosen, two from each third of the city, without whose consent no new 
piece of work should be undertaken, and who, in common with the 
operarius, should oversee and provide for all the interests of the build- 
ing. The scribe — " bonus scriptor " — was also to keep account of all 
the income and outgo of the works. Timber for the building was to 
be cut and marble to be quarried, and both were to be brought to the 
city at the expense of the commune. The operarius was to have the 
right to take stone and marble from any quarry, even against the will 
of the owner, giving him, however, a receipt for what might be taken 
which should be available as a claim against the commune. 

The provisions of the statute include many other points of detail of 
more or less interest, but enough has been given to show its general 
scope. The volume in which it is contained is tomo xxv. {jiumerazioiie 
afitica) dcgli Statuti del Comicne di Siena, in the Archivio di Staio. 



1^6 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

pie and her all-sufficient aid in the support of their 
laws and the maintenance of their republic. 

But though the desire to propitiate their celestial ad- 
vocate was still perhaps as strong as ever among the 
Sienese, yet the spiritual temper of the people had 
undergone, in common with that of their neighbors in 
Florence and elsewhere, a great change during the last 
hundred years. The slowly developed sense of civic 
community which was the basis of the social order 
that had gradually risen from the confusion of the 
Dark Ages had grown into confidence in the continu- 
ity of the existence of the community itself. With the 
development of commercial, social, and political rela- 
tions, life had become more complex. The increase of 
power and of wealth had brought luxury. The increase 
of knowledge and of self-dependence had been accom- 
panied with a decrease in the naive piety and sincere 
faith of earlier times. Religion was becoming more 
formal — more a matter of outward observance and less 
of interior conviction. Manners were less simple than 
of old. The picture that Cacciaguida draws of the 
Florence sobria e pudica of his own time, as contrasted 
with the splendid and dissolute Florence of Boccaccio's 
stories, illustrates the general change in the spirit of 
the people in the cities of Italy. 

The arts showed their sympathy with this change. 
Architecture lost power in original and imaginative 
expression. It fell off in the essential qualities of man- 
ly and thoughtful building. The tendency of the 



MORAL CHANGE IN THE POPULAR TEMPER, iry 

Italian architects to sacrifice the principles of good 
construction to picturesque effects became more and 
more pronounced. Sculpture and painting made rapid 
progress in skill and ease of mechanical execution, and 
were more and more employed to minister to the grow- 
ing taste for domestic magnificence and personal dis- 
play, though not yet reduced, as in later times, to mere 
household menials. While they gained in science and 
in productiveness, they lost in dignity of motive and 
truth of sentiment. They gained a new perfection of 
grace, a fresh variety of fancy, and a wider range of 
expression, but they lost in depth of imagination and 
serious meaning. 

Siena felt the full force of these currents of change. 
She had grown in size and power; she had, on the 
whole, in the long course of years, been prosperous ; 
her wealth had increased, and her people, even in ear- 
ly days inclined to display, now fell easily into lavish 
modes of living. The seed of luxury readily took root 
in her soil, 

" Neir orto dove tal seme s' appicca." 

The stories of the extravagance of the rich Sienese 
youth have a touch of Oriental excess. After more 
than five hundred years, the tradition of the brilliant, 
festive life of the reckless spendthrifts who got the 
name of the brigata spe7idereccia still holds its place in 
the popular memory, and still serves as an illustration 
of the prodigal spirit of the whole town.* 
* See /;z/>r;w,cantoxxix.i2i-i32,and Buti's comment upon the verses. 



158 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

Siena had never prospered more steadily, had never 
been gayer, had never brought more important works 
to conclusion, than in the years between 1320 and 1340. 
She had completed her magnificent public palace for 
the magistracy of the State ; her great citizens were 
building new and more splendid palaces than the old 
for their own habitation ; she was bringing in fresh sup- 
plies of water and erecting new fountains ; she was 
strengthening and extending her walls and opening 
new gates. A census taken in 1328 showed that her 
population had largely increased during the last gen- 
eration,* and her numbers gave her reliance on her 
strength and on her capacity to accomplish whatever 
she mifrht resolve. 

The languid progress and the incomplete condition 
of the works on the cathedral, the chief building of the 
city, were far from satisfactory to a people in this tem- 
per of mind. The adverse judgment of the architects 
who had been called upon for counsel in regard to the 
extension of the Duomo over the new Church of St. 
John, though disregarded, had not been forgotten ; and 
the advice, which at the time had been little heeded, 
was now recalled, that a new Duomo, " pulcra, magnia 
et magnifica, cum omnibus fulgidis ornamentis," should 
be erected in honor of Our Lord and his most holy 
Mother. The old Duomo had, indeed, been good 

* The number of heads of famihes was 11,711. Under the head of 
a great family would be reckoned a very large number of more or less 
closely connected retainers. 



PRO JECT FOR A NEW CA THEDRAL. i ^ g 

enough for the old Siena; but a new generation had 
arisen with larger thoughts, and new Siena required a 
new, a greater, a more splendid church. Such was the 
conviction of a large party in the city ; but there were 
others who held to the old ways, and to whom the old 
church, with its century of memories and sacred asso- 
ciations, was dear, who urged that to attempt to build 
a more magnificent cathedral would be but to waste 
the means and energy of the commune in an under- 
taking not merely needless, but objectionable. At 
length a plan was proposed fitted to concihate alike 
those who desired a new Duomo and those who would 
maintain the old. The design was of surprising and 
admirable boldness. It was no less than to change the 
whole lay of the cathedral, and, adopting the existing 
edifice as a transept for a new church, to erect a nave, 
aisles, and choir of proportionate dimensions. The 
building that had so long been the pride of Siena 
would thus be preserved in its integrity, and all past 
labor upon it would inure to the benefit of the new 
and vastly grander edifice. This design, if carried out, 
would give to Siena far the most magnificent and glo- 
rious cathedral in Italy, a building for which the rev- 
enues of a kingdom would hardly suffice, but which 
Siena, rich in resource and in money, proud, ambitious, 
devout, trustful in herself and her 'future, felt able to 
construct without misgiving or exhaustion. The pro- 
ject was brought before the Council of the Bell on the 
23d of August, 1339, and before the popular assembly 



l6o SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

broke up that afternoon it was resolved, by 2 1 2 votes 
against 132, that "a new nave should be built" accord- 
ing to the plan proposed, provided, however, that the 
work now in progress be proceeded with diligently.* 

The resolve having been taken, there was no delay 
in making the necessary preparations for carrying it 
out. The ground on which it was proposed to build 
the new nave was thickly covered with houses, and the 
records of the Duomo show that the operarius at once 
set to work to purchase house after house,! or to ex- 
change for a house in this region some house belong- 
ing to the opera in another part of the city.| The 
nuns of the Hospital of Mona Agnese " out of their 
piety " concede three of their houses as a gift to the 
work, and promise to sell two more.§ Before the end 
of the year, almost all the land that was needed seems 
to have been secured. A still more important step had 
been taken in the sending by the commune to Naples 
to induce Master Lando di Pietro to return to Siena 
to take the place of superintendent of the public works 
of the commune, and especially of the cathedral. Lan- 
do was a native of Siena, a man of varied accomplish- 

* " Navis dicte ecclesie de novo fiat, et extendatur longitudo dicte 
navis per planum sancte Marie versus plateam Manettorum, seu pla- 
team que Manettorum dicitur, sicut et quomodo designatum est . , . 
dummodo in opere novo dicte ecclesie jam incepto nichilominus sol- 
licite et continue procedatur, tantum quantum et prout requiritur ad 
proportionem operis dicte navis." Cons, della Campana, cxxv. i8. 
Milanesi, Dociwiejiti, i. 226. The " opus jam inceptum " was probably 
the work on the extension of the Duomo over the baptistery. 

t Arch, del Duomo. Perg. 766, 768, 769, 771, 778, 779, 781, 790, 792, 796, 
X Id. Perg. 775, ']^6. § Id. Perg. 780, 784. 



MASTER LANDO DI PIETRO. l6i 

ment — goldsmith, mechanician, architect, engineer — 
and now of wide repute, so that his services were sought 
in many quarters in Italy, When the proposal for re- 
calling him from Naples was introduced into the coun- 
cil, he was described as a man of highest worth, of great 
ingenuity and invention, not only in his own art of gold- 
smithery, but in many other arts besides, and as well in 
what relates to the building of churches as to the con- 
struction of palaces, houses, streets, bridges, and foun- 
tains ; and it was urged that it would be greatly to the 
advantage of the commune that a man of such excel- 
lence should not remain absent and distant from Siena, 
but that he should dwell always in the city, in order to 
give his counsel and aid in respect to all public works, 
and especially to the new construction of the cathe- 
dral* 

There is, unfortunately, no evidence to show whether 
the design on which the new edifice was begun was 
due to Master Lando, or whether it was the work 



* " Quod cum notorium sit, et certum in civitate Senarum, quod pro- 
vidus vir magister Landus aurifex, est homo legalissimus, et non solum 
in arte sua predicta, sed in multis aliis prater dictam suam artem, est 
homo magne subtilitatis et adinventionis, tam his que spectant ad edi- 
ficationes palatiorum et domorum comunis, et viarum et pontium et 
fontium, et aliorum operum comunis Senensis ; et ipse magister Lan- 
dus moram seu habitationem contrahat ad presens in civitate Neapoli- 
tana, ut ibidem suum honorem augeat et profectum ; et convenientius 
et utilius esset pro comuni Senarum quod homo tante bonitatis non 
absens et longinquus a civitate Senarum, sed potius in ipsa civitate 
continue permaneret, ut suum consilium et iuvamen impenderet tam 
operibus fiendis in majori ecclesia Senensi quam comuni Senarum in 
omnibus aliis supradictis." Cons, della Canipana, cxxv. 54. Milanesi, 
Dociimenti, i, 228. 

II 



J 52 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

of the genius of some nameless architect. Whoever 
was its author, he was a consummate master of noble 
and exquisite design, full of imagination in its general 
conception, full of fancy in detail, of grandest and 
most picturesque effect. The Italian architects, even 
when without other merit, have usually shown a pre- 
eminent sense of the value of just proportions, and of 
harmony in the relation of parts to each other and to 
the whole building ; and in this respect the design for 
the new Duomo was of surpassing merit. Had the 
work been completed according to the plan, it would 
have been not only the most picturesque, but the most 
dignified and beautiful, of the cathedrals of Italy. 

Master Lando seems to have accepted at once the 
proposal of the republic, and before the end of the year 
1339 he had entered on the duties of his office. The 
preparations for the beginning of the work were active- 
ly completed, and on the 2d of February, in the winter 
of 1339-40, the first stone of the new building was laid 
with great solemnity, with religious services and civic 
festivities.* 

The work was hardly fairly begun before a heavy ca- 
lamity fell on the city. One of the violent epidemics 
to which the people in the close towns of the Middle 
Ages were constantly exposed raged for some months, 



* The following entry in the accounts of the operajo probably be- 
longs to this date : " Anco ij. lib. x. sol., e quali si spesero in carne e in 
pane, e in vino che si mando a' preti di Duomo perche venero a diciare 
r ufficio quando si fondo la prima pietra nel fondamento de la facciata 
nuova del Duomo." 



I 



CALAMITIES AND RECOVERY. jg^ 

making Siena mourn for many of her chief citizens, 
among them for Master Lando himself, whom at this 
moment she could ill spare. To the pestilence suc- 
ceeded famine, the result of the interruption caused by 
the epidemic in the regular course of industry and traf- 
fic. The fields had been left untilled, and the harvest 
failed. The magistracy, called that of Abundance, sent 
to Sicily, to France, and to Spain for cargoes of grain ; 
but, owing to many disasters and delays, the supplies 
were late in reaching Siena, and but scanty after all ; 
and though more than forty thousand golden florins 
were spent from the public treasury to relieve their 
misery, the common people suffered terribly.* 

This year there can have been little spirit and small 
means for pushing on the works at the Duomo. But 
the recovery from the losses and depression of these 
successive calamities was rapid. The prosperity of the 
city had been checked but for a moment. In a year 
or two the people had recovered spirit, and, feeling 
themselves once more rich and flourishing, engaged 
with fresh ardor in carrying forward old and new works 
for the service or adornment of their town. In 1343 
water was introduced through long underground chan- 
nels to the fountain in the Campo, known ever since as 
the Fonte Gaia — the Glad Fountain — from the rejoic- 
ings and gladness of the people, as the clear stream 
flowed abundantly into the square which was the chief 
stage of the public life of the city. Two years later the 

* Cronica Sanese di Agnolo di Tura. Muratori, Rcr. Hal. Script, torn. xv. 



1 64 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

great bell-tower on the same piazza, the tower of the 
Palace of the Republic, was completed. The new walls 
of the cathedral were rising rapidly. There were vast 
activity and productiveness in all the arts. And while 
the town was thus beautifying herself within, she was 
extending her dominion and exercising jurisdiction 
over wider territory than had ever before been subject 
to her rule. Siena had never, to outward seeming, been 
so strong, so flourishing, so full of confidence in herself 
as now. She had reached the acme of her splendor 
and the crisis of her story. 

With increase of wealth and strength had come in- 
crease of luxury and wantonness. The sources of civic 
virtue and of public spirit were beginning to run low. 
Men were less honest, women less modest, than of old. 
The people were more than ew^r gente vana. The new 
generation was growing up less hardy, more passionate 
and lustful, than the old had been. The laws became 
ineffectual to restrain men who no longer reverenced 
justice. In 1341 one of the annalists makes entry, 
" Many homicides committed in Siena." The ferocity 
displayed by all classes in their feuds and vengeances 
was revolting. Revenge and wrath knew no mercy. 
Men taken by their enemies were tortured to the point 
of death, but revived to be tortured again, and killed at 
last with every refinement of savage cruelty. There is 
no redeeming trait of romance or generosity in these 
bloody records. At last affairs became so bad that the 
council, finding that no check could be put on the 



CORRUPTION OF ITALY. jgc 

cruel and violent practices of the time, passed an ordi- 
nance to the effect that at the Feast of the Assump- 
tion, at Christmas, and during Holy Week there should 
be truce among all those involved in feuds, that they 
might go to their devotions with more quiet minds. At 
all other seasons men carried their lives in their hands, 
for the assassin might lurk at any corner, the avenger 
of real or fancied wrong might interrupt the gayety of 
any feast with " the furious close of civil butchery." 

Siena was, in truth, not alone, nor even pre-eminent, 
in wickedness among Italian cities. She shared in the 
general corruption of Italy. The Decameron affords a 
picture of a society without convictions, honor, or puri- 
ty : selfish, violent, and timid ; and yet in depicting this 
society Boccaccio omitted many of the darkest traits. 

But a day of reckoning was at hand. Nowhere was 
a heavier penalty exacted than at Siena. In her height 
of pride, she was struck down by a blow from which 
she never recovered. 

The summer of 1347 had been very sickly. At some 
of the Tuscan ports, especially at Pisa, a violent, appar- 
ently contagious, disease — brought, it was believed, on 
some infected vessel from the East — had raged during 
the hot weather, ceasing only with the coming of win- 
ter. The next spring it broke out afresh. It spread 
through Italy. The plague of 1 348 was the most fatal 
epidemic on record. Many accounts of it from eye- 
witnesses have come down to us. The Sienese chron- 
icler Agnolo di Tura gives a brief narrative concern- 



1 66 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

ing it, which renders all other narrative superfluous: 
" At this time," he says, " the great mortality began in 
Siena, greater, gloomier, more terrible than could ever 
be told or imas:ined, and so it lasted till October. It 
was so severe that men and women died of it all of a 
sudden. The groin and the armpit became swollen, 
and suddenly, while they were talking, men died. The 
father scarcely stayed to watch his child ; one brother 
fled from another ; the wife deserted her husband, be- 
cause it was said that this disease was caught by look- 
ing, and from the breath. And so it was, in truth, for 
so many people died in the months of May and June, 
and July and August, that no one could be found who 
would bury them for hire. Neither relation nor friend 
nor priest nor friar went with them to the grave, nor 
was the service said. But he to whom the dead be- 
longed, as soon as the breath was out, took up the body, 
whether by day or night, and with the help of two or 
three carried it to the church; and then they them- 
selves buried it as best they could, covering it with a 
little earth, that dogs might not devour it. And in 
many places in the city enormous trenches w^ere made, 
and bodies were thrown into them and covered with a 
little earth, and then other bodies were put in and cov- 
ered in turn, and so on, layer by layer, till the trench 
was full. And I, Agniolo di Tura, called Grasso, bur- 
ied five of my children in one trench with my own 
hands, and many others did the like. The bells were 
not rung, no mourning was made for any one, grievous 



THE PLAGUE OF 1348. 1 57 

as the loss of him might be, for almost every one was 
expecting death, and things went in such fashion that 
people did not believe that any one would be left ; and 
many men believed and said, ' This is the end of the 
world.' Neither physician nor physic availed aught, 
nor was any precaution of use ; but rather it seemed 
that the more care one took, the sooner he died. And, 
in truth, the mortality was so dark* and great and hor- 
rible that no pen could describe it. And it was ascer- 
tained that in this time there died in Siena more than 
eighty thousand persons." 

Such was the plague at Siena. Agnolo di Tura goes 
on to relate some of its immediate effects. " The peo- 
ple who had escaped from the plague were all glad, and 
thought of nothing but rejoicing, and took no heed of 
what they spent or how they played; for every man 
felt himself to be rich, seeing that he had escaped from 
such a pestilence. And all who remained alive were 
as brothers, greeting each other and jesting with each 
other as though they had been relations. And they 
paid no regard to aught but enjoyment and feasting; 
for to each man it seemed as that he had regained the 
world, and it appeared as if no one could settle down 
to do anything."! 

It was long before the usual course of life renewed 
itself in the desolated city, long before the survivors 

* Oscura — " the black death." 

t Cronica Sanese di Andrea Dei coniinuata da Agnolo di Tura, dalV 
Anno iiZ6_ftno al 1352. Muratori, Rer. Hal. Script, torn. xv. col. 123. 



1 68 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

became accustomed to the changed conditions in which 
they found themselves. The confusion not only of af- 
fairs, but of relations between men, resulting from the 
sudden, indiscriminate sweeping-away of two thirds or 
three quarters of the population of a close, compact 
city, can hardly be too strongly depicted. For a time 
all the common order of society was broken up. In 
Siena one hundred noble families had become extinct. 
In many cases no heirs were left for estates and prop- 
erty. Men without claim took possession of houses 
and goods, their right to which no one was left to dis- 
pute. Half the city was vacant and faUing to ruin. It 
seemed, says one of the chroniclers, as if nobody were 
left in Siena. The condition of the city would have 
been even worse had her enemies not suffered from 
the same calamity. All Tuscany was half depopulated. 
On all sides there were bewilderment and expectancy. 
Events must be left to take their own course; men 
could not all at once understand the position in which 
they actually stood ; they must learn it by waiting for 
experience. In 1350, the second year after the plague, 
the city, says Malavolti, " was still afflicted by the late 
pestilence, and I do not find that it did anything wor- 
thy of memory for public service or advantage."* Nor 
was anything of this sort done the next year, or the 
next. Siena did not recover from the blow that had 
stricken her down. By degrees, however, men grew 
familiar with the new aspect of things ; life began to 

* Historia, parte ii. lib. vi. p. io8, b. 



RESULTS OF THE PLAGUE. j5q 

run in its old channels, trade sprang up, but the spirit 
of the city had been broken, and public affairs went 
from bad to worse. 

This was no period for the carrying-on of great pub- 
lic works. The plague had not only swept off the mas- 
ter workmen from the Duomo, but it had dried up 
many of the sources of supply for the construction of 
the new building. Still more than this, it had so re- 
duced the numbers of the people that even the old ca- 
thedral might well seem too great for the needs of the 
shrunken city. The new design had been adopted by 
a light-hearted people, prosperous and confident of the 
future ; it was far too vast and superb to be executed 
by a people hardly a third as numerous as that which 
had undertaken the work — a people, moreover, depress- 
ed in spirit, distracted by internal confusion, and humil- 
iated to the point of submission to unworthy enemies. 

The records of the year of the plague, and of those 
immediately succeeding, are very scanty. In 1 348, and 
the two next years, the operajo bought, at a low price, 
a few houses which probably occupied a part of the 
ground required for the new building.* The means 
for the purchase were drawn from the offerings at the 
church during the fatal season, in which the votive gifts 
extorted from terror had been of no avail to obtain im- 
munity from what was conceived to be the stroke of 
Divine wrath. No progress of importance was made in 
the works, and in 1353 the operajo presented a suppli- 

* Archivio del Duomo, Perg. 833, 842, 847. 



lyo SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

cation to the magistracy, setting forth that for five years 
past the customary subsidy from the commune had not 
been paid, and begging that the payment should be re- 
newed. The council, moved by piety, and by desire 
that the work should not come to a stop, granted his 
request* 

But the end was near, and the fate of the new build- 
ing was to correspond with that of Siena herself. The 
finest design of the architecture of the Middle Ages in 
Italy was not to be brought to perfection. After a year 
or two in which the records of the building are a blank, 
they recommence in 1356 with a series of documents 
of deplorable significance. Defects had become visi- 
ble in the construction of the new cathedral. Whether 
it was that Lando had left no successor able to carry 
forward the great and difficult project, or whether the 
plan had been in itself too bold, or whether during the 
wretched years that followed his death the masonry of 
the building had been carelessly and slightingly per- 
formed, cannot be told. But the defects that now de- 
clared themselves were sufficient to awaken the anxiety 
of the opcrajo and his counsellors, and they summoned, 
from Florence and elsewhere, skilled masters to exam- 
ine the work and give advice concerning it. From the 
opinion given by one of them, Benci di Clone, of Flor- 
ence, it appears that four columns had shown such 

* ConszgUo dclla Cainpana, tomo civ. p. 28. It appears that previous- 
ly five hundred and fifty lire had been paid annually from the public 
treasury for the benefit of the work, Archivio del Duomo, Perg. 808, 
Anno 1343. See Appendix I. Document IX. 



DEFECTS MANIFEST IN THE NEW CATHEDRAL. lyj 

weakness that the vaulting arches and the walls that 
rested upon them had become insecure, and that there 
was no mode by which the harm could be satisfactorily 
repaired. In his judgment, the best course would be 
to take down walls, arches, and columns.* The opin- 
ions of the other architects who were consulted have 
not been preserved, but there is no reason to suppose 
that they were of a different tenor. 

Such a misfortune as this would have been enough 
to discourage a community even less burdened with 
calamity than that of Siena. It compelled the magis- 
trates and the people to new deliberations, and the con- 
viction at last forced itself home upon them that they 
must give up the hope of completing the work, begun 
less than twenty years before under conditions so dif- 
ferent from those under which the city now lay. The 
capomaestro of the opera, Domenico d' Agostino, and 
Master Niccolo di Cecco, who had long been employed 
upon it, 'were now called on to give their judgment. It 
was briefly to the effect that, considering all that must 
be destroyed of the old church if the new one were 
constructed as had been proposed, and that the work 
to be destroyed could not be rebuilt at a less cost than 
one hundred and fifty thousand florins of gold, and be- 
lieving that with the present income of the opera the 
new church could not be completed in a hundred years, 
it were the wiser counsel that the old Duomo be left 
standing as it then stood; and that the prolongation 
* Milanesi, Dociimenti, i. 249. 



172 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

of the choir over the new baptistery, or Church of St. 
John, begun so many years before, but the progress of 
which had been interrupted by the works on the new 
Duomo, should now be carried forward to its end. 
This work could be accomplished, they thought, within 
five years, and the city would then possess a cathedral 
and a baptistery sufficient for its needs, if not for its 
ancient pride.* 

The tenor of this counsel harmonized with the fallen 
fortunes and depressed spirit of the republic. But, 
though no other course than to adopt this recommen- 
dation seemed feasible, it was not resolved upon with- 
out further deliberation. A committee of twelve citi- 
zens was appointed by the magistrates to consult and 
report upon the subject. Their conclusion was unani- 
mous and decisive. They reported that, having care- 
fully inspected the work of the new church, and having 
consulted the best master builders, both of Siena and 
from abroad, they had found that the walls of the new 
church were defective and not strong enough to sup- 
port the necessary building upon them ; that they were 
even already threatening to fall ; wherefore it was rec- 
ommended that all the interior walls and vaults and 
other portions of the church be demolished as speedily 
as possible, and nothing of it left standing but the out- 
er walls. This report was made in the month of June, 
1357. It appears to have been at once adopted, and 
immediately acted upon by the governors of the repub- 

* Milanesi, Document t, i. 251. 



DEMOLITION OF THE NEW CATHEDRAL. i ^^ 

lie* Each stone thrown down from the marble walls 
might have served as a slab on which to inscribe the 
lost hopes of Siena, to commemorate her former glory, 
to record her fall. 

And here with the resolve to demolish the interior 
of the new building, and to leave only the outer walls 
standing, the story of the Duomo at Siena as a great 
civic work — a work in which the hearts and energies 
of the people were engaged — comes to an end. From 
this time forward the Sienese contented themselves with 
their old Duomo, leavinQr the bare but masfnificent walls 
of their later design to stand as the splendid sepulchral 
monument of the past glory and greatness of the State, 
of the largeness of its spirit, and the abundance of its 
resources. Thus these walls still stand, more impressive 
to the imagination than if they belonged to a completed 
building, the stateliest memorial of disappointment in 
the land of noble designs left incomplete. Had Siena 
not been stricken down, and had she retained spirit to 
complete the new cathedral as it was begun, it would 
have been the most magnificent building of its sort in 
Italy, and one of the noblest cathedrals in all Europe. 
The existing portions of it show the Gothic harmo- 
nized with the Italian spirit in admirable accord, the 
one not losing its energy nor the other its grace, but 
both so interfused and united that the charm and 
power of. each commingle in rare fulness of effect. 
Exquisite in its colossal proportions, in division of its 

* Milanesi, Dociimenti, i. 254. 



174 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

spaces, and exquisite also in its decoration, in which 
something of the refined elegance of the best work of 
the Renaissance is already visible, the fragments of the 
incomplete edifice are not only more interesting, but 
more beautiful, than the completed structure to which it 
forms the most picturesque and striking of forecourts. 

There is no need to trace the further history of the 
Duomo in detail ; for the building no longer has inter- 
est as the expression of the will of a people full of vigor, 
conscious of a common life, and capable of sustained 
exertions and abiding passions. 

The very next record that I have noted is, indeed, 
curiously expressive of the change that had come over 
the Sienese since the day of the victory of Montaperti a 
century before. In 1363 a dreaded band of free lances, 
called the Company del Capelletto, ravaged the territo- 
ry of Siena, burning and devastating far and wide, till 
finally, seizing on the stronghold of Campagnatico, it 
threatened to establish itself there as a headquarters 
whence to make forays so long as anything was left in 
the territory to plunder. The Sienese, so low had they 
sunk, sent envoys to the captain of the band to offer 
him a large sum of money if he would take his troop 
elsewhere, but the offer was refused. Driven to de- 
spair, Siena then began to get together a troop of mer- 
cenaries, mostly Germans, in order to try to drive out 
the freebooters by show of force. The command was 
given to Messer Francesco Orsino, of Rome, or, as he is 
called, M. Francesco di M. Giordano de' figlioli d' Orso, 



DEFEAT OF THE COMPANY DEL CAPELLETTO. i 7 r 

and his orders were on no account to join battle 
with the company of marauders, for fear of defeat and 
of exposing the city to danger. Messer Francesco, 
however, taking advantage of a favorable opportunity, 
disobeyed his orders, attacked the band, routed it with 
great slaughter, made its captain prisoner, and returned 
to Siena triumphantly, having delivered the city from a 
great fear. For his victory Francesco was rewarded, 
but for his disobedience he was removed from com- 
mand. A day or two afterwards the ruling magistrates 
of the city, li Signori Dodici, had a solemn mass cele- 
brated at the Duomo, to return thanks for the victory, 
and great offerings were made by the commune and 
by private citizens.*" Further than this, at their next 
meeting the council voted that a chapel should be 
erected in the Duomo, at the expense of the republic, 
in honor of St. Paul, with a painting to commemorate 
the victory obtained over the Company del Capelletto.f 
The altar-piece has perished, but on the wall of the 
Sala delle Balestre, in the Palace of the Republic, a 
picture of the battle may still be seen, which the mag- 
istrates had painted in honor of the victory won for Si- 
ena by mercenary arms. 

The change which the spirit and temper of the peo- 
ple had undergone in the course of a hundred years 
was no ordinary alteration. The people seem no longer 



* Cronache diNeri di Donato, Muratori, Script. Rer. Ital. torn. xv. col. 
179-180. 
t Consiglio della Campana, clxxvi. 57. 



176 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 

the same in blood, and the contrast between the glory 
of the victory of Montaperti and the shame of such a 
chance defeat of a loose band of marauders, serves to 
measure their degeneracy. 

In the course of years Siena recovered some degree 
of prosperity and strength, but she never regained her 
ancient power or her former vigor. The old Duomo 
and the Church of St. John were in a few years com- 
pleted according to the resolve taken in 1357, and 
thenceforward such interest as the citizens contin- 
ued to feel in the building was expressed in works of 
finish or adornment. The vaults of the cathedral were 
painted, its windows were filled with painted glass, a 
pavement of inlaid marble of various design was laid 
down,* alterations were made in the facade, and from 

* This pavement, which has ever since been one of the boasts of Si- 
ena, was begun, according to Milanesi {Documentt, i. 176), about 1369. 
Vasari was in error in ascribing the first designs for it to Duccio. It 
is a work in which the talents of the artist and the materials employed 
are alike perverted to the least appropriate uses ; but it is much ad- 
mired by persons who like to be amused with the ingenious artifices 
of misapplied skill. " C'est certainement," says M. Labarte, " ce qui a 
ete fait de plus beau en ce genre." From time to time during the last 
five hundred years the pavement has been renewed, and during the 
sixteenth century an artist of considerable but exaggerated repute, 
Domenico Beccafumi, gave designs for the floor of the choir, which 
surpassed in their kind all that had been seen before. The merit of 
this sort of work as pavement is shown by the fact that for ten or 
eleven months out of twelve it is carefully protected by a covering of 
planks. 

Details concerning the designs of the pavement, and the artists em- 
ployed on it at different periods, may be found in Vasari's Life of Bec- 
cafumi ; in Milanesi, Doawienti (see Index, iii. p. 414. Siena, Duomo, 
Spazzo) ; in Labarte's Histoire des Arts Industriels au Moyett-Age, tome 
iv. p. 305 ; and in all the local guide-books. 



WORKS OF THE RENAISSANCE. jyy 

time to time many an ornament was added, and many 
a change in minor features was made both within and 
without. 

Through the next two centuries the most noted ar- 
tists of Siena, and many from abroad, were employed 
to enrich it with their works, till it became the treasure- 
house that it still remains of the decorative arts of the 
most brilliant period of Italian culture.* 

Work on such a building never ceases. Each new 
generation, with its new fancies, finds something to add 
or to alter. Time does its work of waste, and years 
bring constant need of repair and restoration. Siena 
had her share in the revival of old arts and letters, and 
in the birth of modern culture and sentiment ; and the 
Renaissance left a deep mark on the Duomo in works 
sharply contrasted with those of an earlier age, not only 
in quality of design and execution, but in the motive 
of their construction. They are mostly monuments of 
the pride and wealth of special families or individuals, 
and no longer serve as expressions of the spirit and 
devotion of the whole community. 

The history of the Duomo had ceased to be that of 
Siena. The sentiment of corporate unity, of common 
interests in the bonds of a common civic life and a 
common religious faith, had been strong enough, in 
spite of civil discord and party divisions, to secure the 

* See, for an account of some of these works, " L'Eglise Cathedrale 
de Sienne et son Tresor, d'apres un Inventaire de 1467, traduit et an- 
note par Jules Labarte," in the Annales Archeologiques, tome xxv. 

12 



lyS SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. 
> 

independence of the community, and to inspire it with 
magnanimous designs. But this sentiment gave way 
before the development of rationahsm and of individu- 
alism. Men orrew indifferent aHke to the claims of re- 
ligion and of the community. Their emotions were 
brought more and more under the control of reason, 
and their energies, which, united in effort towards a 
common end, had once rolled as a vast stream in a 
deep, however narrow, channel, were now dispersed in 
slender and widely separated currents. 

The Duomo, that had been the expression and wit- 
ness of the strong forces of the life of the community 
of Siena, became the evidence of their decay. To the 
imagination, even to the eye, of the lover of the past, 
Siena exists only in the works and deeds of her early 
time. Her cathedral and her palace are monuments 
over the grave of the passions, hopes, and faith of gen- 
erations that were capable of efforts beyond the mark 
of modern times. 



IV 
FLORENCE AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER 



IV. 

FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

I. THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH. 

" Never was our city," says Machlavelli, speaking of 
Florence as she was at the close of the thirteenth cen- 
tury — " never was our city in a greater or happier con- 
dition than at this time, being full of men, of riches, 
and of renown. Her citizens capable of bearing arms 
numbered thirty thousand, and those of her territory 
seventy thousand. All Tuscany, partly as subject to 
her, partly as friendly to her, obeyed her."* Nowhere 
in Italy .was trade more flourishing, or the arts more 
zealously cultivated. Her citizens, however divided by 
party discords, were united in a common pride in their 
city. The fame of her strength and her beauty was 
wide-spread ; " so that many," says a chronicler of the 
time, " come to see her, not of necessity, or because of 
the excellence of her trades and arts, but because of 
her beauty and adornment." Yet this beauty and 
adornment had been wrought out for her in spite of 
internal contention and division. Peace seldom dwelt 
within her walls. The eager and hasty temper of her 

* Istorie Fiorentine, lib. ii. § 15. 



1 82 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

citizens was quickly kindled into passionate outbreaks 
and tumultuous uproar, in which civil order was for 
the time broken up, and the very existence of the State 
seemed to be at stake. 

The thirteenth century had been a long struggle be- 
tween the feudal and civic nobility and the mass of the 
common people, in which the grandi had for the most 
part gained the upperhand. Through the intricate 
record of a hundred years one may trace the baffled 
but persistent effort of the compact and industrious 
democracy to achieve such a combination of their 
forces as to enable them to get the better of their aris- 
tocratic oppressors. The rule of an unscrupulous, quar- 
relsome, and tyrannical privileged class was incompati- 
ble with the institutions requisite for the prosperity of 
the industrious community. Gradually a form of or- 
ganization was worked out by the trades, resembling 
that of the guilds of Northern cities, but more political 
in its character, which, in spite of various checks and 
numerous futile endeavors, at leno^th, towards the end 
of the century, succeeded in mastering the old nobility 
and in establishing itself as the chief power in the 
government of the city. This result was reached in 
1292. 

The opening clauses of the Ordinances of Justice, 
by which the new order of the State was regulated, in- 
dicate the spirit of those by whom this revolution had 
been accomplished : " Whereas justice is a steady and 
constant will that gives to each man his rights, there- 



THE "AR TI" OF FLORENCE. ^ 3 

fore the following ordinances, properly called the Ordi- 
nances of Justice, are ordained for the benefit of the 
republic," to the end of establishing " true and perpet- 
ual concord and unity, and of securing peace and tran- 
quillity for the artificers and arts, and for all the people 
of Florence."* 

The political administration was concentrated in the 
arti, or organized trades of the city. These comprised 
twelve arti maggiori, or chief trades, and nine arti mi- 
nori, or lesser trades : under the banner of one or the 
other of these trades the mass of the citizens was en- 
rolled.! 

* The Ordinamenti di Giiistzzz'a are to be found in the Archivio Sto- 
rico Itah'ano, Sen II. tomo i. pp. 1-93, Firenze, 1855 ; and also in Emi- 
hani-Giudici, Storia dci Coniuni Italiani, tomo iii. pp. 5-147, Firenze, 
1866. They are remarkable for the display of the political sense and 
vigorous resolve of their framers. 

t The division of the industrial population of Florence into " arts " 
appears first near the end of the twelfth century ; but it was not till 
1266, at the time of the political revolution consequent on the defeat 
and death of Manfred, that the arts were organized as civil and politi- 
cal corporations. At that time there were seven chief arts, of which 
Villani (lib. vii. cap. xiii.) gives the list as follows : i, lawyers and notaries ; 
2, merchants of calimala, that is, of French cloths ; 3, bankers ; 4, wool- 
merchants ; 5, physicians and druggists ; 6, silk manufacturers and 
dealers ; 7, furriers. To these were added in 1282 (Villani, lib. vii. cap. 
Ixxix.) five more, as follows : 8, retail dealers ; 9, butchers ; 10, shoe- 
makers ; II, master carpenters and masons; 12, smiths. In 1292 the 
Ordinamenti di Giusiisia adds to the enumeration of the twelve chief 
arts nine lesser arts, as follows : 13, vintners; 14, innkeepers ; 15, deal- 
ers in salt, oil, and cheese ; 16, leather-dressers ; 17, armorers ; 18, lock- 
smiths and dealers in old and new iron; 19, saddlers and shield and 
corslet makers; 20, joiners; 21, bakers. This order of the arts was 
preserved essentially the same during the existence of Florence as a 
republic. Compare Goro Dati (in Napier's Hist, of Florence, ii. loi), 
about 1380; and Machiavelli, Tst. Fiorentine, lib. ii. § viii., and Varchi, 
Storia Fiorcntina,\\\). xii. ^ 21. "All the citizens of Florence," says 



iS^ FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

Florence, like other Italian cities, was accustomed 
annually to call upon some personage from a remote 
but allied city to exercise the functions of Podesta, or 
chief executive officer, within her limits ; but all the 
other magistrates of the commonwealth were to be 
chosen from the members of the twelve chief Arts. 
The grandi, or nobles, were expressly excluded from 
office. Each of the Arts had its own officers, and each 
was required to maintain a military organization for 
the support of order and the defence of the city. Each 
of them had its written statute, by which its members 
were governed, while provision was made that the vari- 
ous statutes should be in harmony one with the other 
so far as the common interest required. It was the ob- 
ject of these statutes to secure at once the good order 
of the city and the prosperity of the trades. 

The provisions of these codes, so far as judgment may 
be formed from the only one of them which has come 
down to us — the Statute of the Art of Calimala, or of 
foreign cloth merchants — indicate the sound political 
sense of the Florentine tradesmen, and their full under- 

Varchi, " were obliged to enroll themselves in one of the twenty-one 
Arts ; that is, no one could be a burgher of Florence unless he or his 
ancestors had been approved and matriculated in one of these arts, 
whether he practised it or not. Without proof of matriculation he 
could not be drawn for any office or exercise any magistracy." An in- 
teresting account of the character and political influence of the arts is 
given by Von Reumont in his Lorenzo de Medici, Band i. p. i8 seq., 
Leipsig, 1874 ; and a notice of the devices on their banners (mainly from 
Villani, lib. vii. cap. xiii.), and other particulars of interest concerning 
them, in the same author's earlier and very useful work, Tavole Crono- 
logiche e Sincrone della Storia Fiorentijia, Firenze, 1841, Introduzione, p. 
ii,n. 3. 



COMMERCIAL MORALITY OF FLORENCE. jgr 

standing that permanent commercial prosperity depends 
upon moral conditions; first of all, upon the uprightness 
and integrity of the individual tradesman. Every pre- 
caution is taken to secure fair dealing, and to maintain 
firm credit. Heavy penalties are enacted against fraud, 
perjury, misrepresentation, and unfair competition. It is 
required of the merchants "to use pure, loyal, and simple 
truth " in all their dealings. There is a stamp of piety 
and uprightness on the whole statute. The provisions 
in respect to the method in which accounts were to be 
kejDt, to the terms of credit, to bankruptcy and the re- 
covery of debts, to usury and prices, are ample, careful, 
and minute. In the trade of Florence there was noth- 
ing of the looseness of modern competitive dealings; 
nothing of the spirit that seeks gain at any cost, even 
that of truth and honesty ; nothing of the disposition 
to make undue profit, and to reckon every trick fair in 
trade. There w^as a standard of commercial morality 
as exact as that to which the weisfhts and measures of 
the shops were made to conform. Florence was re- 
solved that her credit should be good, and that neither 
rival nor enemy should have a right to reproach her 
with slackness in the fulfilment either of pubhc or of 
private obligations. The four consuls who were chosen 
to rule each of the Arts, holding office for six months, 
were to be selected from "the best and most useful 
merchants ;" and they were to be " Guelfs and lovers of 
the Holy Roman Church, and in their choice no cava- 
lier was to take part." It was from these consuls of 



1 86 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

the trades that the priors of the city were chosen, and 
neither GhibelHne nor noble was to have part in the 
government of the State. 

The Arts thus combined and organized could control 
the most powerful and lawless of the great, and for 
some years Florence experienced the benefit of the 
new order of affairs in an unwonted sense of security 
and a rapid increase of prosperity. The strength that 
lies in union and concord inspired her with confidence 
in herself, and she made a splendid display of the great 
qualities and designs of her trading and industrious 
democracy. The citizens of a compact walled town, 
having no regular or general communication with the 
distant outside world ; occupied with few interests but 
those of their households, their shops, and their city ; 
engaged in pursuits that kept them close within the 
narrow circuit of their native streets, were naturally 
filled with a spirit of local attachment little short of 
devotion, and this spirit was the source of great under- 
takings, in which their religion, their pride, and their 
patriotism might find expression. The Arts, each a lit- 
tle commonwealth in itself, served to quicken and in- 
tensify the public spirit ; to bring home to their mem- 
bers the sense of common interests and duties ; and to 
maintain a standard of jDrinciple and of action to which 
each member was compelled to conform, by the strong 
pressure of a concentrated public opinion. 

Seldom has a nobler activity or a more abundant 
productiveness been displayed than Florence exhibited 



PRODUCTIVENESS OF THE ARTS. 1S7 

at this period. The quick wit, the hvely fancy, and the 
poetic imagination of her people were aroused. Her 
poets drew inspiration from her, and gave it back 
through their verses for the quickening of the hearts 
of her people. They were the most noted in Italy, 
even before Dante lifted Florence to the topmost peak 
of fame, and Dante was now already meditating his 
divine poem. Her painters had broken the bonds of 
tradition which had long restrained their progress, and 
Cimabue held the field against all rivals. Her archi- 
tects and builders were showing themselves masters in 
their art, and the number of great works of building, 
many of which are still among the chief ornaments of 
the city, begun in the ten years between 1290 and 1300 
indicates alike the ability of the architects and the en- 
ergy and abundant resources of the community. Dur- 
ing these years the churches of Santa Maria Novella 
and of the" Carmine, as well as the loggia of Or' San 
Michele, were in process of construction ; the founda- 
tions of the churches of Santo Spirito, of San Marco, 
of Santa Maria in Cafaggio (now known as the Annun- 
ziata), of Santa Croce, together with its vast convent, 
were all laid; and the building of the Palace of the 
Priors and of the Hospital of St. Bartholomew was be- 
gun. Nor does this complete the list. The thriving 
city was extending her limits, and building a new cir- 
cuit of walls with towers for the common defence, 
erected in part out of materials obtained by the demo- 
lition of some of the tall and massive towers which had 



1 88 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

served as the dens and strongholds of those grandi 
whose lawless power she was engaged in repressing.* 

But besides all these works, she set about what was 
to prove a much more important undertaking. The 
old church of Santa Reparata, that had long served as 
her Duomo,t stood in need of repair, and on the nth 
of September, 1294, an appropriation from the public 
treasury of four hundred lire was voted for this pur- 
pose. On the 2d of December of the same year a sim- 
ilar appropriation was made, with a slight but signifi- 
cant change in terms — for the church "the repairing 
and renewal of which are now in progress." % 

No more definite information than this remains con- 
cerning the beginning of the work of construction of 
that new cathedral which was destined to become the 
most characteristic and impressive edifice in Florence, 
and to employ her chief artists for the next two hun- 
dred years. But there is an apocryphal decree, the 
invention probably of the sixteenth century, in which 
its author expressed what he not unfitly conceived to 
have been the spirit and intent of the earlier time.§ As 

* See Moise, Satita Croce di Ftrense, Firenze, 1845, pp. 51, 52, and Reu- 
mont, Tavole Crofiologiche, for these years. 

t The first authentic mention of the Church of Santa Reparata is 
in 724. 

X Gaye, Cartcggio inedito d' Artisti, dci Secoli XI V.XV.X VI., Firenze, 
i839,tomoi.pp.425,427. Every student of the history of Italian art finds 
himself under obligations to this invaluable collection of documents. 
• § The desire of communities and of individuals to perpetuate their 
fame by monumental buildings is one of the most characteristic feat- 
ures of Italian culture. Nowhere was it stronger than in Florence. 
Burckhardt, in his Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien, Stuttgart, 1868, 



i 



RESOLVE FOR A NEW DUOMO. jgg 

reported, the decree runs thus : " Whereas it is the 
highest concern of a people of illustrious origin so to 
proceed in their affairs that men may perceive from 
their works that their designs are at once wise and 
magnanimous, it is therefore ordered that Arnolfo, ar- 
chitect of our commune, prepare the model or plan for 
the rebuilding of Santa Reparata with such supreme 
and lavish magnificence that neither the industry nor 
the capacity of man shall be able to devise anything 
more grand or more beautiful; inasmuch as the most 
judicious in this city have declared and advised in pub- 
lic and private conferences that no work of the com- 
mune should be undertaken unless the desisfn be to 
make it correspondent with a heart which is of the 
greatest nature, because composed of the spirit of many 
citizens concordant in one single will." * 

Although the words of this decree cannot be trusted, 
there is evidence that the Florentines soon gave up the 
thought of repairing the old church, and resolved to re- 
construct and enlarge it, so as to have a Duomo of size 
capable of accommodating the increasing crowds of 
worshippers, and in its design worthy of the wealth and 
spirit of the city. To such a work the Florentines were 
especially called as the head of the Guelf party, a party 

an important supplement to his admirable, more widely known work 
Die Ctdtur der Renatssajice iti Italkm, has collected many instances of 
this disposition ; see, especially, Buch I. Kap. I. § 2. 

* This decree was first published by Del Migliore, in his Fircnzc, 
Citta Nobilissima, 1684, p. 6. He does not say whence he derived it; 
and no such decree exists in the archives of the state. The style is 
too rhetorical for the thirteenth century. 



I go FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

that claimed to be in a peculiar sense the support of 
the interests and authority of the church, while they 
were also stimulated to it by the spirit of rivalry in arts 
no less than in arms that burned deep in the hearts of 
citizens of neighboring states contending for pre-emi- 
nence. Florence could not easily brook that Pisa, Si- 
ena, and Orvieto, inferior to herself in numbers, wealth, 
and power, should each boast a cathedral far more 
spacious, more costly, and more beautiful than the old 
church that had long served her needs. 

" And so," says the trustworthy Giovanni Villani, 
who was a youth in Florence when the work was be- 
gun, " in the year 1294, the city of Florence being in a 
state of tranquillity, the citizens agreed to rebuild the 
chief church of Florence, which was very rude in form 
and small in proportion to such a city, and they or- 
dered that it should be enlars^ed, and extended at the 
back, and that it should be all made of marble, and 
with carven figures. And the foundation was laid with 
great solemnity, by the Cardinal Legate of the Pope, 
on the day of St. Mary in September,* and many Bish- 
ops, and the Podesta and the Captain, and all the 
Priors, and all the ranks of the Signory of Florence 
were present, and it was consecrated to the honor of 
God and St. Mary, under the name of St. Mary of the 
Flower,! although the original name of Santa Reparata 

* The 8th of September, the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. 

t The Blessed Virgin of the Flower — the lily, alike the flower of Mary 
and of Florence, named for its fiowers. The lily of Florence is the 
fieur-de-lys, while the flower of the Virgin is the true white lily ; but 



MEASURES TO PROVIDE MEANS FOR BUILDING, igj 

was never changed by the common people.* And for 
the building and work of the said church a tax was or- 
dered by the commune of two denari upon every lira 
paid out of the public treasury, and a poll tax of two 
soldi. And the legate and the bishops bestowed great 
indulgences and pardons, to be gained by every one 
who should contribute aid or alms to the work."t 

The work was indeed the common interest of all 
Florentines, and the supply of means for it their com- 
mon duty. The decree establishing the poll tax to 
which Villani refers was made in December, 1296, un- 
der the title of " Super impositione pro opere ecclesiae 
See. Reparat^ facienda." It provides, not, as Villani 
states, for a uniform poll tax, but for a tax graduated 
according to the property and family of the citizen. 
It was still further ordered that every person making 
a written will should bequeath a certain sum to the 
work ; the notary employed to draw the will was re- 



the two were associated in their symbolic attributes in the fancy of the 
Florentines. When, in their flourishing state, they laid the foundations 
of their great church, they might read the words of Ecclesiasticus as if 
addressed to themselves : " Florete flores quasi lilium et date odorem, 
et frondete in gratiam, et collaudate canticum et benedicite Dominum 
in operibus suis." 

* The old name was long retained. It was not till 141 2 that the new 
was substituted for it by a vote of the " Signori e Collegi." 

t Giovanni Villani, Cronica, lib. viii. c. ix. Villani's dates are not al- 
ways to be trusted, even when he gives account of contemporary events. 
An old inscription in the wall of the church, itself of uncertain date, 
may be read in two ways, so as to give either 1296 or 1298 as the year 
of the consecration of the corner-stone by the legate. The most trust- 
worthy Florentine antiquaries conclude from various evidence that the 
ceremony took place in 1296. 



IQ2 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

quired to remind the testator of this obHgation, and in 
case of non-compHance with it the heirs were bound to 
make good the omission. For the gathering-in of these 
sums the bishop was empowered to employ two or 
more of the clergy, without salary, in each district of 
the Florentine territory. And, in order to quicken the 
liberality of testators, special indulgences were to at- 
tach to bequests for the building, over and above " the 
graces already conceded to the benefactors of the 
work."* 

The architect of the commune at this time was Ar- 
nolfo, the son of Cambio : a great artist of whose life 
little is recorded, but whose works at Florence are his 
sufficient memorial.! He was busy with the construc- 
tion of Santa Croce when he was called upon to take 
chars^e of the work on the Duomo. The old church 
of Santa Reparata had been constructed in that beau- 
tiful style of which the Church of San Miniato was till 
lately an exquisite example. Though this was a thor- 
oughly national and vigorous style, it was now giving 
way before the foreign and intrusive modes of Gothic 
art. Arnolfo inherited from Niccola Pisano the love 



* Gaye, Carteggio, i. 431. 

t Vasari's life of Arnolfo di Lapo, as he miscalls him, is full of errors. 
He was born near the middle of the thirteenth century, in the little 
town of Colle in the Val d' Elsa. It has been suggested, not without 
reason, that he was the Arnolfo, the pupil of Niccola Pisano, who was 
employed by his master on the pulpit for the Duomo of Siena. (See 
ante, p. 121.) The impulse to the progress of the arts given by the 
genius of Niccola would thus have been transmitted through a genius 
hardly inferior to his own. 



ARNOLFO DI CAM BIO. jq, 

of Gothic forms, and he had shown his preference for 
them in the design of Santa Croce. His work was 
doubtless approved by the popular taste. Such Gothic 
facades as those of Siena and Orvieto were indeed far 
more brilliant and striking, far more impressive to the 
uneducated taste, than the simple design and exquisite 
incrustation of San Miniato or Santa Reparata. The 
new style suited the new age, and Arnolfo undertook 
to rebuild Santa Reparata into a church in which the 
pointed should take the place of the round arch, the 
stone vaulted roof should be substituted for the flat 
timber ceiling, and the facade should form a splendid 
screen adorned with gable and pinnacle, rich with carv- 
ing, glowing with mosaics, and shining with gold. 

The deserts of Arnolfo were recognized by Florence, 
and in 1300, when the work on the Duomo was in 
active progress, a decree was passed which exhibits 
the mode taken by the commune for his recompense. 
" Considering," says the decree, " that Master Arnol- 
phus is the chief master of the labor and work of the 
Church of the Blessed Reparata, the principal church 
of Florence, and that he is a more famous master and 
more expert in the building of churches than any one 
else in neighboring parts, and that through his indus- 
try, skill, and wit the commune and people of Florence, 
judging from the magnificent and visible beginning of 
the said work of the aforesaid church, hope to have a 
more beautiful and honorable temple than any other in 
the region of Tuscany," therefore " the Priors of the 



1^4 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

Arts, and the standard-bearer of Justice, wishing to do 
honor to the person of this master," after dehberation 
and a vote by ballot, " have resolved and established 
that the aforesaid Master Arnolphus, so long as he 
shall live, shall be totally exempt and free from every 
tax and cess of the commune of Florence."* 

This decree is dated April i, 1300. The most sig- 
nificant date in the history of Florence lies within a 
week of this day, the date of Dante's journey through 
the three spiritual realms.! A little more than two 
months afterwards, on the 15th of June, Dante entered 
on his ofifice as one of the priors of the city; and in 
that priorate, he himself declared, all the ills and ca- 
lamities of his after-years had their occasion and be- 
ginning. X 

The year 1300 was in truth a disastrous year for 
Florence. The old party passions, quenched for a time, 
but not extinguished, blazed up with new fury, and 
wrapped the whole city in smoke and flame. The story 
of this wretched time has been often written. The city 
had never been so prosperous and so happy, says Vil- 
lani, but this year was the beginning of its ruin. Bitter 



* Gaye, Car f egg to, i.445. 

t Whether this journey began on the supposed actual day of the 
death of Christ, the 25th of March, or on Good Friday of 1300, the 8th 
of April, or on the Jewish Passover, the 5th of April of the same year, 
is doubtful and unimportant. See the note of Philalethes, Inferno, 
canto xxi. v. 1 14. 

X " Tutti li mali, e tutti gl' inconvenienti miei dagl* infausti comizii 
del mio priorato ebbero cagione e principio." (Letter cited by Leonar- 
do Bruni Aretino in his Vila di Dante, Firenze, 1672, p. 16.) 



CIVIC DISCORD AND MISERY. j - 

and destructive as had been the quarrels of former 
generations, they had brought less calamity to the city 
than those which now made of its people its own 
worst enemies. The people seemed to have gone mad. 
Things went from bad to worse. Dino Compagni, 
who witnessed and had share in the events of the 
period, has described them in his brief chronicle with 
the moving eloquence of an upright, clear-minded man, 
saddened by the misery he had witnessed and been 
unable to prevent* " In these deeds of ill," he says, 
"many became great who before had had no name," 
many citizens were driven into exile, many houses 
ruined. No one was safe; neither relationship nor 
friendship availed aught. Friends became enemies, 
brothers deserted each other, the son fell away from 
the father ; all love and humanity were extinct ; great 
riches were wasted ; trust, pity, pardon, were in no one 
to be found.. Who cried loudest Let the traitors die ! 
he was the greatest. Many a palace was burned and 
sacked within the city; many a village burned and 
many a field wasted in the territory that lay round 
about. Falsehood, perjury, robbery, murder, and all 

* Within late years the authenticity of the Chronicle of Dino Com- . 
pagni has been vigorously impugned b)^ both German and Italian crit- 
ics. It is a work which, if genuine, is of such extraordinary interest, 
and which in style of narration and quality of character holds so ex- 
ceptional a place, that to have to regard it as a forgery of a later 
century would be matter for serious regret. The question is not yet 
authoritatively settled. I am inclined to believe that the chronicle as 
we now have it is in great part genuine, but that it was worked o\'er, 
added to, and its integrity impaired by an anonymous writer of a com- 
paratively late period. 



196 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

crimes of violence and treachery made every man 
afraid. " Rise up, ye evil citizens," exclaims the chron- 
icler ; " take fire and flame in your hands, and spread 
wide your wicked deeds. Go, bring to ruin the beauty 
of your city. Shed the blood of your brothers; strip 
yourselves bare of faith and love, refuse aid and ser- 
vice one to another. Scatter the seed of lies till they 
shall fill the granaries of your children. But do ye 
believe that the justice of God has failed .? Even 
that of this world rendereth one for one. Delay not, 
ye wretches. One day of war consumeth more than 
many years of peace can gain, and there needs but 
a little spark to bring a great city to destruction."* 

On the 4th of November, 1301, the feeble, cruel, and 
treacherous Charles of Valois, commissioned by Pope 
Boniface VIII. to restore peace to the city, entered 
Florence. His doings served but to make things worse, 
and to gain for him there, says Dante, "sin and shame." t 
But, in the stress of storm and confusion, the order of 
civil life was not wholly broken up. Though troubles 
come and endure, yet must men eat, drink, and labor. 
Morning and evening, summer and winter, recur in 
their order, with their appointed tasks and their famil- 
iar gifts. The nature and the desires of men undergo 
no sudden change ; old interests remain alive to strug- 

* " Piu si consuma in uno di nella guerra, che molt' anni non si gua- 
dagni in pace." Cronica, lib. ii. 
t Purgatorio, xx. 76 : 

" Quindi non terra, ma peccato ed onta 
Guadagnera." 



EVENTS OF 1301 AND 1302. igy 

gle with new passions. All parties in the strifes of 
those dark days, however otherwise they might be di- 
vided, were united at least in common faith in the doc- 
trines of that religion of which the visible Church was 
the minister; and thus, on the 24th of November, twen- 
ty days after the entry of Charles of Valois — nick- 
named Car/o Seiizaterra, Charles Lackland — when he 
was extorting money from the rich by treachery and 
threats, and amusing himself with the sight of palaces 
ablaze, and while the government of the city was pow- 
erless to prevent or redress the Vv^rongs hourly commit- 
ted, the signory, still mindful of the work the commune 
had undertaken for its glory, voted the large subsidy 
for the fabric of the Duomo of eight thousand lire for 
two years * 

Two months later, on the 27th of January, 1302, 
Cante dei Gabrielli, Podesta of Florence, a tool in the 
hands of the ruling faction, condemned Dante, on the 
ground of malversation during his term of office as one 
of the priors, to a fine of five thousand florins. Dante 
was absent from Florence as one of her envoys to Bon- 
iface VIII. in Rome, but his sentence ran that unless 
the fine were paid within three days all his possessions 
should be laid waste, and then be confiscated to the 
benefit of the commune : " omnia bona talis non sol- 



* Gaye, Carteggio, i. 447. Dino Compagni describes the events of 
this time with vigorous and picturesque strokes : " Ouando una casa 
ardea forte, messer Carlo domandava, ' Che fuoco e quello ?' eragli ri- 
sposto che era una capanna, quando era uno ricco palazzo." 



IqS FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

ventis publicentur, vastentur, et destruantur, et vastate 
et destructa remaneant in communi." Building with 
one hand, destroying with the other, was the rule. 
Should the fine be paid within the allotted time, still 
Dante was to remain for two years in banishment. On 
the loth of March he was proclaimed as in contumacy 
to the State, and condemned, should he ever fall into 
the power of the commune, to be burned to death: 
"igne comburatur sic quod moriatur."* 

The answer of Dante to this sentence is in the words 
with which he begins one of the latest cantos of the 
Divine Comedy: 

" If e'er it happen that the Poem Sacred, 

To which both Heaven and earth have set their hand, 

So that it many a year hath made me lean, 
O'ercome the cruelty that bars me out 

From the fair sheepfold where a lamb I slumbered. 

An enemy to the wolves that war upon it, 
With other voice forthwith, with other fleece. 

Poet will I return, and at my font 

Baptismal will I take the laurel crown." 

But he was never again to pass the sacred threshold 
of his beautiful St. John, nor again to see the rising 
walls of the cathedral, to which popular tradition has 
attached the memory of his interest, still pointing out 
the spot whence he was wont to watch the laying of 
their deep foundations and the lifting of their massive 
stones. 

* The text of the decrees against Dante may be found in Fraticelli, 
Storm della Vita di Dante Alighieri, Firenze, 1861, pp. 147 seq. The 
originals may still be seen In the Florentine archives. 



BUILDINGS OF ARNOLFO. log 

The records of the work during the next few years 
are scanty. In 1310 Arnolfo died, and, irreparable as 
was the loss of such genius as his, he had yet lived 
long enough to leave the building so far advanced that 
his successors in office would find little difficulty in 
continuing the main parts of the construction accord- 
ing to his design. During his many years of service 
as architect of the commune, Arnolfo had set his stamp 
ineffaceably upon the aspect of the city, giving to it 
many of the most striking features by which it is still 
adorned. The Palace of the Sigtiory (the old palace, 
as it is called), the Palace of the Bargello, each with 
its aspiring belfry, now surmounting all other towers 
of the city ; the vast pile of Santa Croce, the still vaster 
pile of the Duomo — of all of which the first design, and 
in great part the construction, were his — remain unsur- 
passed by later buildings, with a single exception ; and, 
in the midst of more modern edifices preserving their 
ancient character, they give proof of the marvellous en- 
ergy of the republic, and the not less marvellous gifts 
of the artist by whom she was served. Arnolfo had 
also overseen the beginnings of the great new circuit 
of turreted and battlemented wall that was to enclose 
and defend the city, and which stood as a picturesque 
and impressive memorial of the conditions of mediaeval 
life till, but a few years ago, it was swept away to give 
place to what are called modern improvements. 

Recent generations have so relentlessly waged war 
against the picturesqueness of mediaeval cities that it is 



200 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

difficult for the fancy to reproduce the full effect of the 
aspect of Florence at the beginning of the fourteenth 
century. In every street rose stronghold palaces, built 
for the needs of war as well as of peace, flanked by 
lofty towers, the shape of whose battlements gave sign 
to which of the great parties, Guelf or Ghibelline, their 
possessors owed allegiance.* The number of the tow- 
ers of Florence was to be reckoned by hundreds. The 
Florentine masons had inherited the old Roman art of 
solid building. They knew how to lay stones so that 
they should lie as firm in wall or buttress as they had 
lain in their native beds.t Adjoining the palaces of 
the chief families was a loggia, or covered portico or 
arcade, where the rich and noble were wont to cele- 
brate those ceremonies in which the common people — 
the popolo minuto — had a share of interest, or at which 

* The merlons of the Guelf battlements were square, those of the 
Ghibelline were " a coda di rondine," that is, in shape like the letter M. 

t Palaces and towers were built with a double wall of cut stone, of 
blocks of uniform thickness. The space between the sections of the 
wall was filled in with a concrete of lime and pebbles, by which the 
whole was bound together in a solid mass. The towers were usually- 
square ; few were less than one hundred feet, many were more than two 
hundred feet, in height. They were entered by a small door opening 
directly upon the narrow staircase which filled their whole interior 
space. Here and there a passage in the wall led to a loop-hole, or to 
a door by which the defenders of the tower, if assailed, might pass out 
at a safe height on to a movable platform supported by brackets of 
stone, many of which may even now be seen in the truncated remains 
of these old monuments of the fights and feuds of those passionate 
days that were the discipline of Florentine character and the training 
of her art. See Passerini's note in Ademollo's Marietta de Riccz, 
Firenze, 1845, vol. ii. p. 735. The notes to this elaborate historical 
romance in six volumes octavo, contain an immense amount of infor- 
mation concerning Florence not easily found elsewhere. 



I 



WALL OF THE CITY. 20I 

their presence as witnesses was desirable. Here mar- 
riage contracts were signed, here festivals for public 
honors were held, and here victories over domestic or 
foreign enemies were celebrated with feasts and rejoic- 
ings. Tower and loggia were the signs of dignity, pow- 
er, and wealth, and were objects of special pride and 
jealous care to the members and retainers of the house 
to whose greatness they bore testimony. The gates of 
the city, new-built by Arnolfo, were so many fortresses ; 
and the strong wall now extending its defence around 
the town was furnished, " for beauty as well as for 
strength," with towers, at a distance of less than four 
hundred feet one from another, no one of them less 
than twenty-five feet square or than seventy-five feet 
in height, and many much larger and higher. " And 
in order," says Giovanni Villani, " that the memory of 
the greatness of this city may last forever, and for the 
sake of those people who have not been at Florence 
and may see this chronicle, we will describe in order 
the construction of this wall, and the measures of it as 
they were diligently measured at our instance, we, the 
writer, being the officer of the commune to superin- 
tend the walls." * From the account he gives, it would 
seem that there must have been more than two hun- 
dred of these towers on the circuit of the walls. The 
walls themselves were nearly forty feet in height and 
more than six feet in thickness ; and their construc- 
tion, begun in 1284 and completed, in spite of many 

* Crotiica, lib. ix. capp. cclvi. cclvii. 



202 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

periods of Interruption In their progress, In 1327, Is one 
of the many proofs of the vigor and riches of the city 
at this time. For two hundred years the towers kept 
watch and ward around Florence ; but In the days of 
her decline and misery, when Pope Clement VII. was 
her master, they were thrown down, that the city might 
be put in order of defence against the artillery of the 
Emperor Charles V. " Within these walls," says VII- 
lani, writing in 1324, "there are, what with cathedral 
and abbeys and monasteries and other chapels, at least 
a hundred churches, and close by every door there Is 
a church, a convent, or a hospital. And now we will 
leave the description of the city of Florence, for we 
have said enough of It, and will return to our subject." 
It is probable that even before Arnolfo's death, In 
1 3 10, the means for the building of the Duomo had 
fallen off, owing; to the confusions and disasters of the 
first years of the century. Besides the usual calami- 
ties and destructions of civic warfare, Florence had suf- 
fered in 1304 from a conflagration more terrible and 
wasteful than she had ever before experienced. In the 
heat of a most embittered fight between the factions 
that divided the State, one of the partisans, a priest, 
Neri Abati by name, a man of lewd and dissolute life, 
set fire to two houses near the Mercato Vecchio, the 
most crowded part of the city. A high wind was blow- 
ing from the north ; the flames soon got beyond control, 
and, spreading fast, wrapped possessions and palaces of 
both parties in common destruction. " In fine," says 



,4. 

1 



TROUBLES IN FLORENCE. 20'' 

Villani, with pathetic simplicity, " the fire burned all 
the marrow and core and dear places of the city of 
Florence, and the number of them, between palaces, 
towers, and houses, was seventeen hundred. The loss 
of furniture, treasure, and merchandise was infinite, for 
in those places were almost all the merchandise and 
precious things of Florence; and that which was not 
burned was carried off by thieves, for the fighting was 
still going on through the city ; so that many trading 
companies and many families were stripped and made 
poor by the burning and the robbery. This calamity 
happened to our city on the loth of June." 

Though the fire had destroyed the core of the city, 
it had not killed the worm that had so long been gnaw- 
ing at it. The flames were but the type of the more 
malignant fires of rancorous jealousy and hate, of party 
and personal passion, which wasted the energies and 
consumed the strength of great and small, of noble and 
workman alike. Civil anarchy was followed by war 
abroad, war abroad by new domestic discords. There 
was little spirit for works that the needs of the time 
did not immediately require. Private fortunes demand- 
ed repair. A new generation had arisen since the ca- 
thedral was begun — a generation with less zeal for its 
construction than that by which it had been under- 
taken; and after the death of Arnolfo the w^ork came 
almost to a stop. At length, in 1318, through the wise 
efforts of a stranger. Count Guido di Battifolle, vicar of 
King Robert the Good of Naples, a new and better 



204 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OE' THE FLOWER. 

order was established both in pubHc and in private af- 
fairs. Quiet was restored to the city, and prosperity- 
began to return with peace. Old quarrels were made 
up, old enmities appeased. Works of improvement 
were taken in hand, and the cathedral was no longer 
neglected. A decree was passed assigning for the term 
of five years a fifth of all sums paid to the chamberlain 
of the commune, for the benefit of the fabric of the Du- 
omo, which, in the w^ords of the decree, " had for some 
time past made slow progress, nay, had been almost 
given up through want of money."* 

This new supply of funds, and such other supplies 
as the piety of the jDCople may have ministered, at once 
produced great activity. The superintendents of the 
works {offitiales presidetites) presented a petition to the 
signory, stating that a large quantity of marble had 
been bought by them at Carrara, that they had in- 
creased the number of master workmen on the build- 
ing (" ut in eodem opere plus solito laborent "), and 
praying that the commune would, according to its wont 
(" more solito "), " extend the helping hand," and would 
assign one third of the revenues of the " office of the 
sin of heresy" in aid of the work.f The petition was 
granted. 

After this sign of life and activity, there is again a 

* " Quae a tempore citra lente processit, immo quasi derelicta est 
propter defectum pecuniae." Gaye, Carteggio, i. 452. 

+ The revenues of " the office of the sin of heresy " were probably 
derived from fines and confiscations of the property of condemned 
heretics. The petition is in Gaye, Carteggio, i. 455. 



CASTRUCCIO CASTRACANL 205 

wide gap in the records of the Duomo. In 1320 
began the most disastrous war in which Florence was 
ever engaged. Her enemy was Castruccio Castracani, 
Lord of Lucca, who by his energy and extraordinary 
ability had raised himself to the head of the Ghibelline 
party in Tuscany, and from this time till his death, 
in 1328, waged unremitting and relentless war against 
Florence and her Guelf allies. A soldier trained by 
years of service in France, England, and Lombardy, 
embittered against his enemies by experience of ex- 
ile and wrong at their hands; a man of popular arts, 
but of stern temper, strict in his sense of his own and 
others' rights,* full of resource, acquainted with men, 
and knowing how to rule them, of large ambition and 
of steady mind — he succeeded, during his long strug- 
gle with Florence, notwithstanding her superior re- 
sources of wealth and of men, in defeating her armies, 
in wasting her territory, and in subjecting her to the 
bitterest humiliations.! 

The war told with disastrous effect on the trade and 
the prosperity of the city. Her merchants became un- 
able to fulfil their agreements, and in the summer of 
1326 there were many commercial failures, the chief 
among them being that of the great banking-house of 
the Scali and Amieri and the brothers Petri, which 
claimed an existence of more than one hundred and 

* " Homo probissimus et legalis ultra quam dici possit." Chrofi. Re- 
giense. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, torn, xviii. col. 40. 

t " Et tunc (1325) Castrucius equitavit super districtu Florentise ad 
sui libitum depraedando, et comburendo omnia." Id. col. 36. 



2o6 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

twenty years, and which was indebted to domestic and 
foreign creditors for the enormous sum of more than 
four hundred thousand florins — an amount to be meas- 
ured by the fact that it was not far from that of the or- 
dinary revenue of the State for two years and a half. 
It was a terrible blow to Florence ; for, says Villani, 
" every man who had money lost with them, and many 
other good companies in Florence were held in sus- 
picion, on account of this failure, to their great harm." 
One event that took place in the next year is too 
characteristic of the spirit of the times to be left un- 
mentioned. This was the burning as a heretic of mas- 
ter Cecco d' Ascoli, one of the most learned and en- 
lightened men of his age, who, in spite of his sharing 
in the wide-spread belief in the influence of the stars 
upon human fate and fortune, and his profession of 
the science of astrology, which he had taught in the 
university at Bologna, shows himself in his works as 
an original investigator of nature, and as a man of 
elevated sentiment. His poem entitled Z' Acerba is, 
indeed, rather the work of a student than a poet, 
treating in encyclopaedic fashion of the material and 
moral world. It was no poem of vain imaginings, such 
as that of Dante — 

" Qui non si canta al modo del poeta 
Che finge imaginando cose vane 

***** 
Le favole mi son sempre nemiche." 

He was an old man — seventy years old — when he was 






DEATH OF CASTRUCCIO. 207 

burned ; and there is hardly to be found a more strik- 
ing record of party passion and of superstition than that 
which, beginning with the condemnation of Dante to the 
flames, ends with the death by fire of one of the most 
worthy of his contemporaries. That Cecco met his 
death manfully may be believed from the testimony of 
his own verse, in which he says, " I have had fear of 
three things : to be of a poor and mendicant spirit ; to 
do harm and to give displeasure to others ; and through 
my own fault to lose a friend." * 

The war went on with various fortune, but with lit- 
tle check of Castruccio's rising power. In 1328 he was 
lord of Pisa, Lucca, and Pistoia, and of three hundred 
castles and fortified places ; he was master of great 
part of the seaboard south of Genoa, and held rule over 
wide territory. He was planning new victories when, 
in the summer of this year, he fell ill. On the 3d of 
September he died. Florence was safe, relieved from 
the most dangerous external foe that ever threatened 
her, for the fabric of Castruccio's power was supported 
by his mighty hand alone, and, that support withdrawn, 
it fell with a crash to the ground. Throughout the 
whole period of her adversity, Florence had been sus- 
tained by the thought, which the historian Ammirato 
calls " the general comfort of republics," that she was 
in a certain way eternal, not depending on the life of 
any individual, and able to endure great shocks with- 

* G. Villani, lib. x. cap. xl. Libri, Histoire des Sciences Mat/u'inattques 
en Italte, tome. ii. pp. 191-200, 



2o8 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

out ruin ; while the power of a prince, depending on 
himself alone, was subject to the chance of evil fortune 
and of death.* The reflection is a just one as drawn 
from the experience of Italy in this age, when tyrant 
after tyrant rose by force of personal qualities into 
sudden power, which w^as shattered as suddenly by 
his death. 

Relieved from war, Florence set to work to reform 
her government. Reverting to her old democratic sys- 
tem, changes of great significance were introduced into 
its forms, with the intent to remedy some of the defects 
that experience had shown in it, and with especial aim 
to securing greater stability of administration, to ex- 
cluding unfit persons from office, and to establishing 
the power of " the party," which was the title now arro- 
gated by the Guelfs. The bitter irony of Dante's re- 
proach t of his fellow-citizens on their frequent change 
of laws was indeed deserved, but their fickleness may 
be reojarded in another lioht as an indication of their 
very intelligence and eager quest of good. They were 



* Scipione Ammirato, Lslorie Florentine, Firenze, 1824, tomo iii. lib. 
vii. p. 8. 
t " Athens and Lacedaemon, they who made 
The ancient laws and were so civilized, 
Made towards living well a little sign 
Compared with thee, who makest such fine-spun 
Provisions that to middle of November 
Reaches not what thou in October spinnest. 
How oft, within the time of thy remembrance, 
Laws, money, offices, and usages 
Hast thou remodelled, and renewed thy members ?" 

Purgatory, vi. 139-147. (Longfellow's Translation.) 



FAMINE AT FLORENCE. 200 

at the beginning of the long series of experiments, not 
yet near its conclusion, to determine the limits and re- 
lations of law and liberty, the proper functions of gov- 
ernment, the rights of the individual in society. The 
Florentines, forming the most civilized and intelligent 
popular community in existence, were trying to dis- 
cover the modes by which they might secure the bless- 
ings of good order, prosperity, and strength. Many of 
their attempts were childish ; they were impatient, 
they made many mistakes ; and as in all republics, so 
here were many who preferred their personal interests 
to those of the State. The conflict between private 
selfishness and the public good was sharp, constant, 
and often disastrous. 

Though Castruccio had failed to become master of 
the city, he had wrought desolation around her ; and the 
year after his death she, in common with the greater 
part of Tuscany, suffered from a distressing famine. 
The price of grain rose to triple and quadruple its 
usual level. There was great misery among the poor. 
Perugia, Siena, Lucca, Pistoia, pitilessly drove the des- 
titute beggars from their gates. But Florence, with 
wise counsel and good foresight, " in piety towards 
God," opened her gates to all, and, sending at public 
cost for shiploads of grain to Sicily, kept the market 
supplied with it at a low rate. But this did not suffice 
to relieve the suffering, and therefore at length the 
commune, withdrawing the grain from market, em- 
ployed all the bakeries to bake for the public use, and 
14 



2IO FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

sold the bread every day at a price much below its 
cost. " The commune of Florence," said Villani, " lost 
in these two years " (for the famine, beginning in 1328, 
lasted into the year 1330) "more than sixty thousand 
florins of gold in the support of the people." " And 
though I, the writer, was not worthy of so great an of- 
fice, I found myself officer of the commune, with others, 
in this bitter time ; and, by the grace of God, we were 
inventors of this remedy and method whereby the peo- 
ple were kept quiet, and violence w^as prevented, and 
the poor folk made content, without scandal or uproar. 
And further let this witness to the truth that nowhere 
else were such alms ministered to the poor, by power- 
ful and compassionate citizens, as during this unwont- 
ed famine were ministered by the good Florentines ; 
wherefore I firmly reckon and believe that, for the sake 
of the said alms and provision made for the poor, God 
has guarded, and will guard, our city from great ad- 
versities." * 

Even during the last ten years, strained as the pub- 
lic resources had been, private luxury seems to have 
met with no serious check, while the effeminate refine- 
ments of fashion, le morbidezze cf Egitto, of which Boc- 
caccio complains, had increased to a degree that in- 
dicates a decline in the moral temper and ideals of the 
people. The worst calamity attending a long-protract- 
ed stress of w^ar in a narrow community is the break- 
ing-up of the orderly habits of society, while the influ- 

* Cronica, lib. x. cap. cxviii. 



CHARGE OF DUO MO GIVEN TO THE ART OF WOOL. 2 i j 

ence of its keen excitements leads to the adoption of 
irregular and extravagant modes of life. 

The war with Castruccio had so diminished the 
revenue of the commonwealth that some years passed 
after its close before Florence felt able to go on with 
the long - interrupted work upon her Duomo. At 
length, in 1331, a year of great abundance and prosper- 
ity, the commune resolved to take the building once 
more in hand. A portion of the taxes was assigned to 
the work, and the charge of it was committed to the 
Art of Wool ; * that is, to the corporation of the dealers 
in wool, the richest and most powerful of the Arts of 
Florence. It was no new thing to intrust the super- 
intendence of a- public work to one of the Arts. Not 
only the building, but the charge and maintenance of 
churches, hospitals, and prisons were committed to 
them, t For the heads of the Arts — consuls, rectors, 
or captains, as they might be called — were men elect- 
ed by the body of the Art to manage its affairs, and 
being chosen by those who knew them well, might be 
trusted as of approved capacity and integrity, trained 
to business, and accustomed to the conduct of large 

* Villani, Crojtz'ca, lib. x. cap. cxcii. In the decree making these provi- 
sions, the church was spoken of as having been begun " tarn formosa 
et pulcra, sed remansit iam est longum tempus et est absque hedifica- 
tione ahqua." See Cavalucci, Centti Storici sulla Edificazione delta Cat- 
tedrale Fiore7itina, Firenze, 1871. An ancient inscription inserted in 
the wall of the Duomo records the intrusting of the work to the Art 
of Wool. 

.t Ammirato, Istorie Florentine, lib. iv. ann. 1293, 1294 ; Paolini, Detla 
Legitima Liberta del Commercio, tomo i. nota 64 ; Gaye, Carteggio, i. 532, 
12 Jun. 1388. 



212 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

undertakings. A natural spirit of emulation among the 
Arts led them to take pride in the honorable fulfilment 
of such trusts, and enlisted the personal interest of each 
member in the mode of their discharge.. It was an ad- 
mirable method for securing the best public servants, 
and for keeping them under the constant supervision 
of a vigorous, sensitive, and intelligent public opinion. 
Florence was the first city of modern times thus to take 
advantage of the power that resides in the free but or- 
ganized opinion of a well-ordered community. 

It was long since the most precious building in Flor- 
ence, its ancient baptistery — Dante's " my beautiful St. 
John " — had been thus intrusted to the Art of Calima- 
la, or foreign wool merchants.* St. John Baptist was 
the special patron of Christian Florence ; the city was 
his shcepfold ("ovil di San Giovanni"), and in his church 
all her children gained entrance to the kingdom of 
Christ. Cacciaguida tells the story of every Florentine 
when he says to Dante, 

" And in your ancient baptistery, at once 
Christian and Cacciaguida I was made."t 

* The origin and etymology of the name CaHmala are uncertain. 
The members of this Art found their gain in purchasing the rough 
cloths of Flanders, France, and England, and sending them in bales to 
Florence, to be sheared, dyed, and finished, and thence exported to all 
parts of Europe and to many parts of the East. The traffic was on 
a great scale, and for a long period was one of the chief sources of the 
commercial prosperity of the city. 

The statute of this Art, as revised in 1337, is to be found in the third 
volume of Emiliani-Giudici's Storia dei Comuni Italianl, Firenze, 1866; 
and from it may be gained exact knowledge of the modes of superin- 
tendence by the Art of the public works intrusted to its charge. 

t " My whole history of Christian architecture and painting begins 



STATUTE OF THE ART OF CALIMALA. 213 

The third book of the statute of the Art of CaHmala 
begins with the following rubric : " In the name of God, 
Amen. To the honor of the omnipotent God, and of his 
Mother, and of the blessed messer St. John Baptist, and 
of messer St. Eusebius, and of messer St. Miniatus (San 
Miniato), and the other saints of Paradise, here below 
are writ the rules that relate to the work (opera)* of 
St. John, that of San Miniato aforesaid, and of the hos- 
pital or house of St. James at St. Eusebius's, ruled and 
governed under the ancient and modern defence and 
firm guardianship of the praiseworthy Art and univer- 
sity of the consuls and merchants of the Art of Cali- 
mala in the city of Florence." Following this rubric 
come the chapters of the statute concerning the chari- 
ties to which the Art was held bound. Among others, 
every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning the 
vice-operaio of St. John, w^ho was to be " a good, dis- 
creet and trustworthy layman, of sound body, of good 
report and condition, and of upright life," was to dis- 
tribute in the church twenty dozen loaves of bread. In 
addition, two good men, appointed for a six months' 
term of sei-vice, were every week to give alms to the 
shamefaced poor (" poveri vergognosi ") in the shape of 
grain sufficient for thirty dozen loaves. This grain was 

with this baptistery of Florence, and with its associated cathedral," sa5-s 
Mr. Ruskin, in his Ariadne Florcntina, p. 59. 

* The " opera," used to denote the official board of works. The chief 
officer was the operariiis or opcrajo ; he administered the funds of the 
opera, was responsible for contracts made in its name, and had the gen- 
eral oversight of the execution of the works undertaken by it. 



214 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

to be supplied from the funds of the opera, and the two 
agents of the Art were required to give the said alms 
in company, after diligent inquisition into the condition 
of the poor and needy of the different sections of the 
city and district of Florence. 

The Feast of St. John Baptist, on the 24th of June, 
was the chief religious festival of Florence, and was 
celebrated with special solemnity and splendor. Every 
year, fifteen days before the feast, proclamation was 
made through the city that all those who in past time 
had been accustomed to make offering on St. John's 
Day should be ready with their offerings as usual. On 
the evening of the vigil of the feast the whole city was 
astir. The Podesta and the Captain of the People with 
their attendants, the consuls, notaries, and chamberlain 
of the Art of Calimala, accompanied by the chief and 
best men from each warehouse and shop of the guild, 
together with the consuls of all the other Arts, went in 
solemn procession to the church, every man bearing a 
candle of prescribed weight to be offered at the altar 
for the fabric and adornment of the edifice. The pro- 
cession, representing the dignity and wealth of the city, 
was increased by deputations from the villages and 
towns of the territory of the State, each under its re- 
spective banner, and by the nobles, who came from their 
outlying castles and strongholds, with bands of retain- 
ers, to add their offerings to those of the citizens, and 
to manifest their devotion to the saint. Two merchants 
of the Calimala were deputed to receive the offerings, 



SOURCES OF INCOME OF THE OPERA. 215 

to keep a list of the places represented and the persons 
present at the altar, and, in case of the absence of any 
of those accustomed to make offering, to take measures 
that the default should afterwards be made good. (Arts. 
V. X. xxvil.) The offering was regarded as a debt, and 
the wdiole transaction was conducted on a basis of es- 
tablished rules. It was provided, moreover, by the 
statute of the commune that a portion of the salaries 
of the Podesta and the Captain of the People should be 
annually set aside for the work. Another source of in- 
come, however smah, arose from the custom of release 
by the commune of a certain number of criminals an- 
nually on St. John's Day, who were presented at the 
altar of his church, their pardon being thus granted not 
only as an act of mercy pleasing to the saint, but also 
as involving a pledge on their part thenceforth to live 
without offence, for which the most sacred sanction 
was required. Every criminal thus released and pre- 
sented at the altar was obliged to make an offering of 
six pence {sei danari) for the use of the church.* (Art. 

* This excellent custom prevailed in many of the Italian states. But 
in different cities criminals were presented at the altars of different 
saints. See a7ite, p. 134, for the usage in Siena. There is a sonnet by 
Guido Orlandi, a contemporary of Dante, in which, speaking of Dante's 
own party in the State, he says, for them — 

" No pardon can be claimed. 
Excepting they be offered to St. John." 

And these words are striking because this was the very condition at- 
tached to that recall to Florence which Dante received with the other 
exiles in 1316, and which he rejected with the noblest scorn. There is 
not a manlier voice to be heard than Dante's in the letter in which he 
refuses terms which would imply that he was guilty towards his coun- 



2i6 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

xxvii.) Many were the bequests of the pious, and most 
careful provision was made in the statute for the proper 
administration of the houses and lands that might thus 
come into possession of the opera. 

Two of the best merchants of the Art were annually 
appointed by the consuls under the title of Ofificers of 
the Mosaic Work of St. John Baptist (" OfBciali dell' 
Opera Moyse di santo Giovanni Battista "), whose 
duty it was to provide for the doing of whatever in the 
way of building, repair, or ornament might appear to 
them for the good and honor of the fabric* The 

try : " If Florence is not to be entered by the way of honor, I will never 
enter it." " Quidne ? Nonne solis astrorumque specula ubique conspi- 
ciam ? Nonne dulcissimas veritates potero speculare ubique sub coelo, 
ni prius inglorium, immo ignominiosum populo, Florentinseque civitati 
me reddam ? Ouippe nee panis deficiet." This offer of recall came to 
Dante at the court of Can Grande at Verona. Many of his companions 
in exile submitted to its ignominious terms, and on St. John's Day, the 
24th of June, 1317, the Tosinghi, the Manelli, the Rinucci, and others 
walked as criminals and penitents in the procession, with mitres as the 
mark of their infamy upon their heads, with candles in their hands, 
and being presented at the altar, and having made the due offering, 
were relieved from the penalties that had been pronounced against 
them. This is said to have been the first time at which persons con- 
demned for political offences were thus freed from punishment. 

* These officers derived their name from the mosaics with which 
the tribune and cupola of the church were encrusted, and which were 
the principal works of the kind in Florence. The earliest of them were 
designed and executed, as an inscription in the mosaic reports, by a 
Franciscan friar, Fra Jacopo byname, in 1225, and they still remain, al- 
most as perfect as when first set in place, interesting and instructive 
memorials of the practice of the arts at that date in Florence, and of the 
types of representation of sacred subjects, derived mainly from Byzan- 
tine tradition. See Vasari, Vita di Andrea Tafi, and the commentary on 
the Life of Tafi., vol. i. p. 287, in the Le Monnier edition of Vasari' s Lives, 
Firenze, 1846. The inscription referred to closes with these verses: 
" Sancti Francisci frater fuit hoc operatus 
Jacobus in tali pre cunctis arte probatus." 



DUTIES OF THE ART. 217 

work was to be " the best and most beautiful that can 
be done, for the honor of God and the blessed St. John." 
(Art. xii.) Two good men were also appointed each 
year to have charge of the banners which were hung 
within the church, as well as of the triumphant carroc- 
cio, or car of war, of Florence, which was under the 
especial protection and guardianship of St. John Bap- 
tist. They were to see to maintaining the carroccio in 
good order, with all its due appurtenances, and were to 
provide a suitable place for its safe-keeping, its masts 
only being kept within the church itself. (Art. xxii.) 
The sentiment which the carroccio inspired, and the 
honor done to it as the symbol of the warlike power of 
the free commune, are well indicated by these provi- 
sions. To the Florentines the car and its banner were 
sacred ; to defend it at all hazards was the highest duty, 
to die for its safety w^as the noblest sacrifice to the 
genius of the dear and reverend city, for which no sac- 
rifice could be too costly. 

As a portion of their duty as guardians of the Church 
of St. John, and trustees of its property, with that of 
the other institutions of religion and charity committed 
to their charge, the Art of Calimala undertook to de- 
fend it against the encroachments of the clergy, who, it 
would appear from numerous provisions, set up claims 
or sought to obtain papal privileges or concessions in- 
terfering with the rights of the Art. The consuls of 
the Art were instructed to resist such pretensions by 
every means in their power, and, if need arose, were au- 



2i8 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

thorized to spend a thousand marks of the money of 
the Art, or more if they saw fit, to secure " that the said 
works should remain free and quiet under their guard 
and protection." And in order that the rights of the 
said works may be preserved entire, " the consuls shall 
be represented by a procurator at the Court of Rome, 
who shall zealously appear in audience to oppose who- 
ever may attempt to obtain any brief or privilege con- 
trary to these rights." (Art. xvii.) It was still further 
ordered that the consuls of the Art should summon 
before them the chief and best men of the following 
companies of merchants, namely, the Bardi, Peruzzi, 
Acciaiuoli, Bonacorsi, Biliotti,* and all others that have 
dealings in the Court of Rome ; and should order each, 
under oath, and under fitting penalty, without fail to 
see to it that the partners of their companies who dwell 
in and follow the Court of Rome studiously adopt the 
needful measures with their friends that the church 
and board of works of St. John Baptist may be exempt 
and free from every impost, procuration, or levy of what- 
ever nature of the clergy of Florence ; " and that mes- 
ser the Bishop of Florence, or the clergy of the cathe- 
dral church of Florence, or any one else, whether in 
their name, or his own, or that of any other person, 



* The Bardi, the Peruzzi, and the Acciaiuoli were at this time the 
leading bankers of Europe. Their establishments were very numerous, 
and their affairs as brokers and money-lenders on a vast scale. Their 
wealth and credit gave them great power. They received the papal 
dues in all parts of Europe, transmitting them through their branch 
houses to the head firms in Florence and in Rome. 



FURTHER PROVISIONS OF THE STATUTE. 219 

shall in nowise intermeddle with or interfere in any 
matter concerning the said church or opera, except in 
so far as permitted by the consuls of the merchants of 
Calimala, and the other men of the said Art, under 
whose guard and protection the said church and opera 
are directed, maintained, and governed with pure faith." 

'* And the said consuls are further required, every 
year, in the month of January, to elect and depute four 
of the best and most sensible merchants of Calimala, 
with every general and special power and authority, to 
inquire, discourse, treat, and arrange with all and sin- 
gular men, persons, nobles, places, congregations, and 
communities of whatever condition or dignity they may 
be, how and by what way, mode, and order the opera 
and the Church* of St. John may be best maintained in 
honor, beautiful, free, and exempt, and be watched over, 
111 perpetuo, honorably, to the reverence of Almighty 
God, and of his Mother, and of the said St. John, and to 
the ^ood state of the commune of Florence and of the 
most pure Art of the merchants of Calimala." (Art. 
xxiv.) 

Similar provisions to those of this statute in regard 
to the administration of the trust reposed in the Art by 
the commune undoubtedly existed in those of the other 
chief Arts. The share that the Arts thus took in the 
erection, decoration, and preservation of the sacred and 
beautiful buildings of the city trained and disciplined 
the perceptions of the citizens, and quickened their 
sympathies for the works of their artists and artisans. 



2 20 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

Every new structure became a school of the eye and 
the taste of the Florentines, and the effect was to make 
them competent in judgment and quick in interest in 
matters of art as no other modern community has been, 
while "the chief and best merchants" formed a body 
of patrons and employers of artists unmatched in intel- 
ligence except by the merchant nobles of Venice. No 
wonder that the fine arts flourished under such condi- 
tions, and that the city secured for three centuries such 
expression of her sentiment, her creed, and her life as 
no other city ever enjoyed for an equal length of time. 

The Art of Wool, on receiving charge of the struct- 
ure of the Duomo, at once proceeded to make provision 
for the work, ordering that in every warehouse and shop 
of the craftsmen of Florence a box should be kept 
wherein a certain sum — the pence of the Lord — should 
be put on occasion of every sale or purchase. " In the 
beginning," says Villani, " this amounted to two thou- 
sand lire a year." 

The records of the work now undertaken on the 
Duomo are lost, but on the 12th of April, 1334, a vote 
memorable in the history of the building was passed 
by the magistracy of the republic, appointing the most 
famous artist of all Italy, Giotto, chief master of the 
work of the cathedral, and overseer of the construc- 
tion of the walls and of the other works of the com- 
mune ; since, so ran the preamble, " in the whole world 
no one more competent for these and many other 
things can be found than master Giotto di Bondone, of 



GIOTTO MASTER OF THE WORKS. 221 

Florence, painter, and to the end that he may be re- 
ceived in his own land as a great master, and one held 
dear in the above-named State, and that he may have 
reason for making his abode continually in it, by which 
very many may profit from his knowledge and teach- 
ing, and no slight honor result to the city."* Florence 
showed her wisdom in thus choosing the most original 
and imaginative of her artists for the master of her 
works. He justified her selection, and the judgment 
of posterity has approved it. A hundred years later, 
Ghiberti, writing his Cojnmentaries on Art., said, " Giot- 
to saw that in art whereto others had not attained ; he 
brought nature into art, and grace therewith, not over- 
passing just limits. He was most skilful in every art. 
He was the finder and discoverer of the great learn- 
ing that had lain buried for about six hundred years. 
When nature has the will to concede anything, she con- 
cedes it without stint. And this man abounded in all 
things." t 

Giotto gave himself to his new charge with the ef- 
fectual ardor of genius. No written record of his work 
on the Duomo remains, but the walls themselves seem 
to bear witness to it. A stretch of wall on the north 
and on the south, running eastward from the facade, 
more beautiful in composition and design, more ex- 
quisite in its forms and in the pattern of the slabs of 

* Gaye, Cartcggio, i. 481. 

t Secondo Commentario del Ghiberti, in Le Monnier's edition of Vasari, 
vol. i. p. 1 8. 



222 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

marble and serpentine with which it is incrusted than 
the later work joined to it, may be ascribed with fair 
probability to the period of his oversight of the 
building.* 

But Giotto's labor was not limited to the Duomo it- 
self. In spite of engagements on other work within 
and without the city, he speedily designed and began 
the construction of the most exquisite building of mod- 
ern times, the one in which the quality of classic art 
is most completely and beautifully harmonized with the 
spirit and fancy of the modern times — the unsurpassed 
bell-tower of the Duomo, known and admired by all 
men as the Campanile of «Giotto, the most splendid me- 
morial of the arts of Florence. 

On the 1 8th of July, 1334, scarcely more than three 
months after his appointment, the foundations of the 
campanile were laid with great pomp and religious 
ceremony.! 

The tower so quickly begun was lifted vigorously, 

* These pieces of wall include four windows and a door on each side. 
They have the character of the Gothic — "quella maniera Tedesca," as 
Vasari calls it — adopted by Giotto in other buildings. The proportions 
of these windows and portals are more slender, their ornamentation is 
richer and more refined, their gables are more pointed, than those of 
the later work. They are also set closer together, between flat buttress- 
es nearer one to the other than in the rest of the building. Owing to 
changes in the construction of the interior, the windows have been 
blocked up within. 

t Villani, Crotitca, lib. xi. cap. xii. Vasari, in his Life of Giotto, gives an 
interesting account of the masonry of the foundations, and of Giotto's 
designs and models for the tower. He states that Giotto's salary from 
the commune was one hundred golden florins annually. In the decree 
appointing him, the amount of his salary is not fixed. 



DEATH OF GIOTTO. 223 

and it may have reached somewhat more than a third 
of its proposed height when, in January, 1337, Giotto, 
"who in Hfe," says Vasari, "had made so many and 
such beautiful works, and had been not less good 
Christian than excellent painter, gave back his soul to 
God, to the great grief of all his fellow- citizens, not 
only of those who had known him, but also of those 
who had only heard of him ; and he was buried, as his 
virtues deserved, with honor, having been loved during 
his life by every one, and especially by men excel- 
lent in all the arts," by Dante, for example, and by Pe- 
trarch. He was buried in Santa Maria del Fiore, on 
the side nearest the campanile. 

After his death, there is a wide gap in the annals of 
the Duomo.* To his godson and pupil, the noted 
painter Taddeo Gaddi, and to the sculptor Neri di Fio- 
ravante, was intrusted the oversight of the work on the 
campanile. But there is no evidence concerning its 
progress or as to the date of its completion.! 

The plague of 1348 desolated Florence only less 
than Siena. Boccaccio, whose famous narrative gives 
a most impressive picture of the horrors of the pesti- 

* The design of the ornamental fagade which partially covered the 
front of the building, and which was taken down in 1588, was long 
ascribed by tradition to Giotto. But from documents first published 
in 1863, by Signor Cesare Guasti, the keeper of the archives of the opera, 
it seems certain that he had no hand in it, and that its execution was 
not begun till at least twenty years after his death. See Guasti, Opus- 
coU di Belle Art i, Firenze, 1874; Delia Facciata di S. Maria del Fiore, 
pp. 45 seq. 

t It was not finished in 1355, as appears from a vote of new sums for 
its building. Gaye, Carteggio, i. 508. 



2 24 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

lence, declares that between March and July more than 
one hundred thousand persons, as is believed, died with- 
in the walls of Florence. The number may be exagger- 
ated, but the mortality w^as frightful in its amount and 
terrible in its effect. The spring of vitality in Florence 
was, however, unexhausted by it, and after a period of 
confusion, dismay, depravity, and recklessness, the city 
regained its self-control, and recovered more rapidly 
than its weaker neighbors from the blow which had 
checked, but had not destroyed, the sources of its pros- 
perity.* The plague had been accompanied, as one of 
its natural consequences, by a sudden outbreak of pious 
superstition. Immense sums had been given and be- 
queathed by dying men to the Church and to public 
charities to purchase salvation. And, when the reg- 
ular order of life w^as once more re-established, the 
Church found itself richer than ever before, and there 
was a general ardent desire to ward off by w^orks of 
piety the blows of future evil. 

Moreover, as often happens after such calamities, the 
reaction from the tension of anxiety and distress dis- 
played itself in a changed habit of mind as well as of 
life. To the survivors of the plague the world seemed 
renewed ; the time had a fresh promise. The tales of 



* One consequence of the plague has not been remarked as it de- 
serves by the historians. In the confusion that followed the extinction 
of many important families and the enforced vacancy of many offices, 
vast numbers of documents were lost or wantonly destroyed. To this 
cause is doubtless due the dearth of records concerning the early his- 
tory of the Duomo. 



NEW DESIGN FOR THE DUOMO. 225 

the Decameron reveal the light-heartedness of Florence. 
Old things had passed away ; old designs appeared un- 
suited to the new conditions. To such a spirit the 
Duomo begun sixty years before, in days of compara- 
tive weakness, seemed hardly to correspond with the 
demands of the more lavish and luxurious age. Flor- 
ence was more pre-eminent than ever among the cities 
of Tuscany, and her Duomo ought to be representative 
of her present power and wealth. Accordingly, and 
doubtless after much deliberation, it was resolved, " out 
of regard to the magnificence of the commune, and the 
riches and the fame of the city and the citizens," to 
adopt a new design for the Duomo on a grander scale 
than that of the building planned by Arnolfo. The 
breadth was to remain the same, perhaps in order to 
preserve the beautiful side walls already constructed; 
but the walls were to be raised about twenty -one 
feet, the length was to be increased by more than a 
third, and the central area and the eastern end of the 
church were to be vastly enlarged. This change of de- 
sign required not only the destruction of the work 
already done within the walls, but also the strengthen- 
ing of the foundations, and a doubling of the facade 
wall.* 

* This reconstruction of the Duomo has been generally overlooked 
by the historians of the arts. The belief that the existing church is 
constructed according to Arnolfo's original design rests upon the ac- 
count given by Vasari in his life of that artist. It is curious that Vasari 
appears ignorant of this fourteenth-century remodelling. A passage 
from Xh&Istoria Fiorenti7ia of Marchionne di Coppo Stefani.who died 
in 1385, published by the Padre Ildefonso di San Luigi, in his Dclizie 

15 



226 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

Francesco Talenti, sculptor and architect, a man of 
high capacity but of irregular habits, of whose life lit- 
tle is known, was the chief master of the works, having 
succeeded the famous Andrea Pisano in that post, and 
to him was probably due in general the character of 
the new design. The authorities in charge of the edi- 
fice took counsel in regard to its execution, according 
to well-established custom, with the most skilled mas- 
ters and the most intelligent laymen, and submitted 
the plans to popular inspection, publicly inviting criti- 
cism upon them.* 

On the 19th of June, 1357, "in presence of the prov- 
ost, and all the canons and chaplains and friars, and 
masters and citizens who had been of the council, with 
a great triumph of bells, of organs, and of chants, at 
vespers, the digging for the foundation of the new piers 
of the church was begun." And on the 5th of July 
following, " the Bishop of Narni having blessed and con- 

dcgli Eriiditi Toscani, Firenze, 1 781, vol. xiv. p. 30, in which the chroni- 
cler describes the undertaking of the new building, seems to have lain 
unnoticed. The true facts were first brought out by the Cavalier Ca- 
millo Boito in a series of papers entitled Francesco Talenti : Ricerche 
Storiche sul Diiomo di Firenze dal 1294 al 1367. Milano, 1866. They 
have since been repeated in a series of interesting communications on 
the history of the Duomo, by Signor C. I. Cavalucci, which appeared at 
Florence in the newspaper Z^; Nazione in the course of 1871, under the 
title of Ccnni Storici sitlla Edificasio)tc dclla Cattedrale Fiorcntina. 

* It appears that only a general scheme of the reconstruction was 
adopted, leaving the consideration of details until the time when in the 
progress of the work a decision in regard to them might become nec- 
essary. This seems to have been a not infrequent mode of procedure 
in the construction of the great mediaeval churches, and thus some of 
the incongruities and irregularities apparent in them are to be ac- 
counted for. 



CHANGE IN ARCHITECTURAL STYLE. 22 7 

secrated a block of marble, on which were carved a cross 
and the date of year and day, they began, in the name 
of God, to lay the foundation of the first column within 
the church towards the campanile," with great pomp 
and sacred ceremony. 

Thus the church that Arnolfo had designed gave 
way to a mightier edifice which was to be the perma- 
nent expression of the pride and the piety of Flor- 
ence.* 

The main forms of the new building were in great 
part determined by such portion of the old structure 
of Giotto's time as was left standing, as well as by the 
original scheme of Arnolfo. They were of the Gothic 
style as modified by Tuscan builders, but the spirit 
that had vivified the art of Arnolfo and Giotto and 
their immediate successors was declining with a grad- 
ual change in the taste of the age, which displays it- 
self in an inclination, not yet clear or decisive, but in 
its earliest stages, towards a recurrence to classical 

* Probably all that remains of Arnolfo's building are the foundations 
and part of the interior brickwork of the fagade, and of the side walls 
for about one hundred and seventy-five feet eastward from the front. 

As illustrative of the mode of procedure by popular counsel, it is re- 
corded that in 1357 the operai ordered that the drawing showing the 
proposed changes in the fagade be hung upon it on the outside, that 
all might see how it was to be built. Guasti, Opuscoli, p. 50. And in the 
same year, when the form of the columns within the church was to be 
decided, the model selected by the Board of Works was set up for in- 
spection, and at its foot was written in large letters that if any one 
should have fault to find with it, he should within eight days come to 
the operai, or to others in their place, and speak his mind, and he 
should be graciously listened to. Cavalucci, Ceiini Stoi'ici, ii. Boito, 
Francesco Talenti, p. 30. 



2 28 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

modes of desisrn and construction. The new school of 
artists were out of sympathy with their predecessors. 
They had still less mastered the principles of Gothic 
architecture. They imitated its forms, but were un- 
aware that the excellence of those forms was essen- 
tially dependent on the modes of construction in which 
they had their origin. They built as Italians upon a 
system and method whose traditions reached back to 
Roman times. The result was neither good Gothic 
nor good classic building. 

Its size gives dignity to the church, and its effect is 
powerful from the simplicity and largeness of its de- 
sign. A nave of four enormous bays is stopped upon a 
vast octagonal space, from which, at the east, the north, 
and the south, are built out three pentagonal tribunes 
or apses, which, as seen on the outside, give to the 
church the common cruciform shape. The propor- 
tions of the interior are on an enormous scale, by which 
the apparent size of the building is diminished rather 
than increased.* There is nothing either in the general 
conception or in the working-out of the details which 
corresponds with that principle, characteristic of the 
best Northern Gothic, of complex organization in which 
each minor part contributes to the vital unity of the 

* "The most studious ingenuity," says Mr. Ruskin, with pardonable 
exaggeration, " could not produce a design for the interior of a build- 
ing which should more completely hide its extent, and throw away 
every common advantage of its magnitude, than this of the Duomo of 
Florence." Mornings hi Florence, p. 99. Yet there is grandeur in the 
breadth of its spaces, in the immense span of its vaults, and the extent 
of its unadorned walls. 



CHARACTER OF THE EDIFICE. 229 

whole edifice. The Duomo presents, on the contrary, 
an assemblage of separate vast features arbitrarily as- 
sociated, rather than united by any law of mutual rela- 
tion into a completely harmonious whole. It does not 
display that lavish wealth of fancy in ever-changing va- 
riety and abundance of detail which gives inexhausti- 
ble charm to a true Gothic edifice. But it is impres- 
sive within from its vast open spaces, and from the 
stately and simple, though barren, grandeur of its piers 
and vaults and walls. 

The effect of the building from without is imposing 
from its mass, but, in a near view, it is only on the east 
that the lines compose into forms of beauty. The 
front was to have an ornamental facade, richly adorn- 
ed with sculpture and mosaic. The side walls are in- 
crusted, after the old Tuscan style, with simple rec- 
tangular patterns of white and red marble, interrupted 
by the rich decoration of gable and pinnacle over the 
doors and windows. It is all gay and exquisite and 
rich ; but without as within there is a lack of fancy, and 
even the delicate refinement of the inlaying and the 
carving does not compensate for the absence of noble 
controlling decorative motives and of harmonious con- 
cord of line.* 

It is when seen from a distance that the full worth 
and power of the great cathedral force themselves upon 

* The horizontal lines of surface decoration break injuriously upon 
the vertical lines of the windows, and the forms of the highly orna- 
mented gables are curiously inorganic. 



2-^0 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

the beholder. Looking down upon Florence from one 
of the neighboring heights, the beautiful city seems to 
lie gathered under the shelter of its mighty Duomo. 
The stretch of its wall is ample for the house in 
which the whole jDCople shall gather, and, lifting itself 
above the clustering towers and belfries of palaces and 
churches, the unrivalled dome crowns the edifice, and 
with its noble elliptic lines not merely concentrates the 
scattered forms of the buildino;s beneath and around it 
far and near, but to the inward eye seems equally to 
concentrate all the divergent energies of the historic 
life of Florence, and lift them along its curves to the 
foot of the cross upon its heaven-reaching summit. It 
seems of equal date with the mountains that close the 
background to the landscape of which it forms the cen- 
tral interest; and they seem to look down upon this 
work of man as one not unworthy of their guardian- 
ship. 

The work begun in 1357 was carried forward stead- 
ily, but slowly, for the next ten years, when the four 
bays of the nave approached completion. It was now 
time to proceed with the construction of the tribunes, 
and in 1366 and the next two years frequent councils 
of the Board of Works and of citizens of good under- 
standing and repute were held, at which various plans 
and models were discussed. The deliberations were 
long, the diversities of opinion were great, the decision 
was slow. Near the end of 1368 a conclusion was 
reached, and work on the eastern tribune, forming the 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 23 1 

end of the church in that direction, was begun. Fran- 
cesco Talenti was still chief master, to be succeeded 
the next year by his son Simone. But for some years 
little progress was made, partly owing to the political 
confusion due to the discord and violence of the parties 
by which the city was divided, as well as to a bitter war 
with the Pope, Gregory XI. (1375-78); partly to the fact 
that the commune from time to time devoted the funds 
intended for the Duomo to other ends of public advan- 
tage, such as the building of the city walls, and the 
erection, from the design of Orcagna, of the beautiful 
Loggia de' Lanzi, still one of the chief ornaments of 
Florence.* The vigorous vitality of the city was ap- 
parent in her capacity, in the midst of almost constant 
civil distraction, thus to continue to strengthen and 
adorn herself. In 1382 the party of the great family 
of the Albizzi succeeded in establishing itself as the 
ruling power in the city, and in obtaining a position 
which it held, on the whole to the advantage of the 
State, for the next fifty years, by means of energy, high 
character, and political courage and intelligence. It is 
probably not a mere accidental coincidence that almost 
at once a fresh spirit appears in the building of the ca- 
thedral, and that the last years of the fourteenth cen- 
tury and the first years of the fifteenth are marked by 
records which indicate activity in the construction, and 
still more in the adornment, of the srreat edifice. In 

"^ Gaye, Cartcggio, etc. i. 521, 527. The Loggia de' Lanzi was begun 
in 1376. 



2 32 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

1383 the building of the chajDels around the octago- 
nal choir was begun ; tracery was inserted in the cen- 
tral round window of the front; and in the next 
years there were many commissions for sculpture with 
which the facade and the side portals were to be 
adorned. 

The art of the sculptor was entering on a new de- 
velopment The spirit of the Renaissance was be- 
ginning to find expression in it for those more per- 
sonal moods and emotions which were characteristic 
of the change in the moral and intellectual temper 
of the times. It was still limited in its field main- 
ly to sacred subjects; it was still imperfect in its mas- 
tery of its own powers ; still hampered by conven- 
tional types of representation. Even the genius of 
Giotto and of Orcagna had not secured for it entire 
freedom and range of expression. But the work they 
had done had opened the way of progress, and in the 
closing years of the fourteenth century the men were 
born who were to enter in and take possession of the 
domain of the art with power such as had not been 
manifest since the time of the Greeks, and with an 
inspiration fresh, original, springing from sources of 
which the Greeks had not partaken. The records 
of the opera are filled with commissions for statues of 
the Madonna and her Child, of apostles, saints, and an- 
gels. Most of the works of these years have perished, 
and their places have been in part taken by the pro- 
ductions of a later time ; but the few that remain dis- 



COMPLETION OF THE WALLS. 233 

play the merit of the precursors of Ghiberti, Donatello, 
and Luca della Robbia.* 

In 1407, nearly forty years after it had been begun, 
the eastern tribune, with its five chapels, was completed. 
A more important work was now to be taken in hand. 

* Dr. Hans Semper, in his thorough and excellent work Donatella, 
seine Zeit und Sc/mle,WiQn, 1875, pp. 49-53, gives a good account of 
these works. 



I V. — Continued. 
FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

ir. THE DOME OF BRUNELLESCHI. 

In the chapter-house, the so-called Spanish chapel, of 
Santa Maria Novella is one of the most interesting pict- 
ures of the fourteenth century. It has been ascribed, 
rightly or wrongly is of little consequence, to the great 
Sienese master Simone Memmi. It represents, in a 
varied and crowded composition of many scenes, the 
services and the exaltation of St. Dominic and his 
order. The artist may well have had in his mind the 
splendid eulogy of the saint which Dante heard from 
St. Bonaventura in Paradise. As the type and image 
of the visible Church, the painter has depicted the 
Duomo of Florence, not unfinished, as it was at the 
time, but completed, and representing, we may believe, 
in its general features, the original project of Arnolfo, 
although the details are rather in the spirit of the deli- 
cate Gothic work of Orcao^na's school than in that of 
an earlier time. The central area of the church is 
covered by an octagonal dome that rises from a cornice 
on a level with the roof of the nave, and is adorned at 
each angle with the figure of an angel. 



PROJECT OF A DOME. 235 

When the church now, at the beginning of the fif- 
teenth century, was approaching completion, this orig- 
inal project of an octagonal dome still seemed the only 
plan practicable for the covering of the intersection of 
nave and transept ; but the construction of such a work 
had been rendered vastly more difficult by the immense 
increase in the original dimensions. The area to be 
spanned was enormous, for the diameter of the octa- 
gon was now about one hundred and thirty-five feet* 
The difficulty was the greater from the height of the 
walls from which the dome must spring. No Gothic 
builder had vaulted such an area as this. Since the 
Pantheon was built, no architect had attempted a dome 
with such a span ;' and the dome of the Pantheon itself, 
with a diameter of one hundred and forty-three feet, 
rose from a wall that was but seventy-two feet in height. 
The dome of St. Sophia, the supreme work of the By- 
zantine builders, with the resources of the Empire at 
their command, had a diameter of but one hundred 
and four feet, and the height from the ground to its 
very summit was but one hundred and seventy-nine 
feet. The records of architecture could not show such 
a dome as this must be. Where was the architect to 
be found who would venture to undertake its construc- 
tion ? What were the means he could employ for its 
execution ? Such were the questions that pressed upon 

* Liitzow, Meisterwerke der Kirche7ibaukunst, Leipsic, 1871, p. 418, 
gives the diameter as 135 ft. 2 in.; Ytr^M^^on, History of Architecture, 
1867, ii. 321, gives it as 126 ft. The height of the nave is, according to 
Liitzow, 139 ft. 5 in. 



236 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

those who had the work in charge, and which busied 
the thoughts of the builders of the time. 

While this problem was still unsolved, a work was 
undertaken by the guardians of the baptistery which 
was to add a permanent and splendid artistic distinc- 
tion to the beautiful city that nursed the arts so well, 
and which, from the circumstances attending it, was to 
have a decisive influence on the further history of the 
Duomo. 

So long ago as 1329, the Consuls of the Art of Cali- 
mala had resolved that three doors of gilded bronze, 
" the most beautiful that could be," should be made 
for the baptistery, and had committed the work to 
the sculptor Andrea Pisano, who, carrying forward the 
sound traditions of the Pisan school, was deemed " the 
most valiant, skilful, and judicious master not only in 
Tuscany, but in all Italy."* 

Andrea, aided by his son Nino, made a single door, 
which still remains one of the most precious works of 
the art of the fourteenth century, but the others were 
not completed. Meanwhile the skill in sculpture and 
in bronze-casting had greatly advanced, in the general 
rapid progress of the arts; and in 1401 the deputies of 
the Art of Calimala resolved that the remaining doors 
should be made, and selected six of the most esteemed 
artists each to prepare within a year a bass-relief in 



* Vasari, Life of Andrea Pz'sano, in Milanesi's edition of the Vzfe, 
Firenze, 1878, i. 487. In regard to the door made by Andrea, see Sem- 
per, Donatello, seine Zeit und Schiile, p. 19. 






COMPETITION FOR THE DOORS OF BAPTISTERY. 237 

bronze, such as might form one compartment of a door, 
with the promise that the work of all should be paid 
for, and that to him whose work should be approved 
as the best the makinsf of the door should be com- 
mitted. The subject assigned for the competition was 
the sacrifice of Abraham. Among the artists selected 
were two youths, Filippo Brunelleschi, then twenty-four 
years old, and Lorenzo Ghiberti, four years younger, 
both of whom had already given proof of rare ability, 
so early did the warm sun of Florence in those days 
mature the genius of her children. Each had served 
his apprenticeship as goldsmith, an incomparable train- 
ing of eye and hand and soul for the higher arts in days 
when the love of beauty, refining the taste, required ex- 
quisite form in jDcrsonal ornaments, and demanded of 
the goldsmith that his art should add a worth far be- 
yond their own to gold and jewels. 

The competition was keen, and excited a lively in- 
terest among the citizens. When the trial pieces were 
shown, it was plain to all that the choice lay between 
those of the two young artists. Ghiberti, indeed, in 
the brief account of his own life which he wrote in 
later years, says, with characteristic vanity, " The palm 
of victory was conceded to me by all the experts and 
by all the competitors ; the glory was universally con- 
ceded to me without any exception." But the con- 
temporary biographer of Brunelleschi relates that the 
judges reported to the Board of Works of St. John that 
both the models were most beautiful, and recommend- 



238 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

ed that the commission be divided between the two 
sculptors. However this may have been, and wdiether 
or not Brunelleschi, as his biographer says, refused the 
proposed division, the making of the door was finally, 
on the 23d of November, 1403, assigned to Ghiberti * 

The two trial pieces still exist and are to be seen 
in the National Museum in the Palazzo del Podesta at 
Florence, and the contemporary judgment is confirm- 
ed by that of posterity. For while Brunelleschi s piece 
shows a more imaginative conception and more real- 



* Ghiberti, Sccondo Commentario, % xvi., in the first volume of Le Mon- 
nier's Vasari, p. 30. Vita Anonima di Brunelleschi, pp. 148-151. Va- 
sari's account of the competition, in his Life of Ghiberti, which is re- 
peated essentially in his Life of Brtmelleschi, is embellished more sua, 
and inaccurate. He makes Donatello one of the competitors, but in 
1401 Donatello was a boy of fifteen. See Semper, Donatello, p. 231. 

The anonymous biography of Brunelleschi was written not long af- 
ter his death by a contemporary who tells us that he knew him and 
had spoken with him. It bears the mark of genuineness, but cannot 
be relied on for complete exactness. It was first published in Florence, 
in 1 8 1 2, by the Canonico Domenico Moreni, together with a Life of Bru- 
nelleschi by Baldinucci, preceded by an essay, by Moreni, on the Fine 
Arts in Tuscany. In another edition of the same year this preliminary 
essay is omitted ; it is to a copy of the latter edition that the citations 
in the following pages refer. 

Moreni says, in his preface, that the anonymous biography was " al- 
together unknown " to Vasari ; but this is an error, for Vasari not only 
follows it closely in the narration of many facts, but frequently adopts 
its very words. It is attributed by Gaetano Milanesi to Antonio Ma- 
netti, the author of the famous Novella del Grasso Legnajicolo, of which 
Brunelleschi is the hero. See his edition of Vasari's Lives, Florence, 
1878, torn. ii. p. 329, note. 

The Life by Baldinucci is carefully compiled from original sources ; 
but its value has been diminished by the fuller publication of the doc- 
uments relating to Brunelleschi's life and works, by Signor Cesare 
Guasti, in La Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore illustrata con i Documenti 
deir Archivio dell' Opera Secolare, Firenze, 1857. 



RESULT OF THE COMPETITION. 239 

istic vigor in the expression and action of the figures 
than that of his rival, Ghiberti's composition is richer 
and more harmonious in hne, more elegant in detail, 
and far more skilful in technical execution. In Bru- 
nelleschi's work the figures were cast separately, and 
fastened upon the plate, after the old manner of pro- 
cedure in bronze-casting; while Ghiberti, eager in in- 
vention and quick of wit, had adopted a recent improve- 
ment in the art, and cast his work in a single piece, to 
which he had given an unexampled delicacy of finish. 
Brunelleschi, disappointed, but conscious of the de- 
fects of his own performance when compared with that 
of his rival, and still more when compared with the works 
of the ancients, and filled with the enthusiasm for clas- 
sic antiquity which was the inspiration of the younger 
spirits of the time, said to himself, as his contemporary 
biographer reports, " that it would be well to go where 
the sculptures are good," and accordingly set out for 
Rome. He is said to have taken, as his companion, the 
young Donatello, whose expressive and romantic genius 
had already displayed itself in work stamped with a clear 
originality, and whose ardor in the pursuit of art was 



* The anonymous biographer and Vasari agree, the latter, however, 
probably merely repeating the statement of the former, as to Brunel- 
leschi's being accompanied by Donatello. Semper, in his thorough 
study of Donatello's life, already cited, expresses no doubt of the fact. 
I prefer to believe rather than to doubt it ; but Donatello's name ap- 
pears in the first agreement made by Ghiberti with the Board of 
Works of St. John as that of one of the assistants in the work on the 
door, and reappears in a second agreement made in 1407. See Coin- 



240 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

It cannot now be determined, and it is of little im- 
portance, whether Brunelleschi's object in going to Rome 
was as distinctly defined beforehand in his own mind as 
Vasari declares in the statement that he had two most 
grand designs— one to bring to light again good archi- 
tecture ; the other to find the means, if he could, of 
vaulting the cupola of St. Mary of the Flower," an inten- 
tion of which he said nothing to Donatello or any liv- 
ing soul" — or whether, as the anonymous biographer im- 
plies, this object gradually took shape in his thought 
as he studied the remains of Roman antiquity, ac- 
quainting himself with the forms and proportions of 
classic buildings, and with the unsurpassed methods of 
Roman construction. But this journey of Brunelleschi 
and Donatello, that they might learn, and, learning, re- 
vive, " the good ancient art," is one of the capital inci- 
dents in the modern Renaissance. These were the two 
men in all Florence, at the beginning of the fifteenth 
century, of deepest nature, of most various and original 
genius. They were in little sympathy with the temper 
of the Middle Ages. For them the charm of its finest 
moods was lost. The spirit that had given form to 
Gothic art had always been foreign to Tuscan artists. 
The traditions of an earlier time had never wholly 
failed to influence their work. And now the worth and 
significance of ancient art, first recognized by Niccola 
Pisano a century and a half earlier, were felt as never 

vientario alia Vita di Lorenzo Ghiberti, Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, vol. iii. 
pp. 128, 129. 



INFLUENCE OF CLASSIC ART. 24 1 

before. The work of the scholars of the fourteenth 
century, in the collection and study of the fragments 
of ancient culture, was bearing fruit. For a hundred 
years the progress in letters and the arts in Italy had 
been quickened by the increasing knowledge of the 
past, and with each step of advance men had not only 
felt deeper and more inspiring delight in the ideals of 
the classic world, but had found more and more in- 
struction in the models which its works presented. 
Through the creations of the art of former days nature 
herself was revealed to them in new aspects. Their 
reverence for the teachings of the ancients was often 
uncritical and indiscriminate, but the zeal with which 
they sought them was sincere and invigorating. It 
was not till a later time, when the first eao;erness of 
enthusiasm had given place to a dry pedantry of in- 
vestigation, that the study of classic models allured a 
weaker generation from the paths of nature and inde- 
pendence into those of artificiality and imitation. 

Brunelleschi was the first artist to visit Rome with 
fully open modern eyes. From morning till night, day 
after day, he and Donatello were at work unearthing 
half-buried ruins, measuring columns and entablatures, 
digging up hidden fragments, searching for whatever 
might reveal the secrets of ancient time. The common 
people fancied them to be seekers for buried treasure ; 
but the treasure for which they sought was visible only 
to one who had, like Brunelleschi, as his biographer 
says, " buono occhio mentale," a clear mental eye. 
16 



242 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

For many years the greater part of Brunelleschi's 
life was spent in Rome. He had sold a little farm that 
he owned at Settignano, near Florence, to obtain the 
means of living; but, falling short of money after a while, 
he turned to the art in which he had served his appren- 
ticeship, and gained his livelihood by work as a gold- 
smith. The condition of Rome at this time was wretch- 
ed in the extreme. Nothing was left of the dignity of 
the ancient city but its ruins. There was no settled 
civic order, no regular administration of law or jus- 
tice. Life and property were insecure. The people 
were poor, suffering, and turbulent. Rome was the 
least civilized city of Italy. Its aspect was as wretch- 
ed as its condition. Large tracts within its walls were 
vacant. Its inhabited portions were a labyrinth of 
filthy lanes. Many churches, built in earlier centuries, 
were neglected and falling to ruin. There was no re- 
spect for the monuments of former times. Many were 
buried under heaps of the foulest rubbish ; many were 
used as quarries of stone for common walls ; many were 
cumbered by mean buildings, or occupied as strong- 
holds. The portico of the Pantheon was filled with 
stalls and booths ; the arcades of the Colosseum were 
blocked up with rude structures used for the most va- 
rious purposes ; the Forum was crowded with a con- 
fused mass of low dwellings. Ancient marbles, frag- 
ments of splendid sculpture, were often calcined for 
lime. The reawakening interest in antiquity which 
was inspiring the scholars and artists of Florence, and 



GROWTH OF BRUNELLESCHI'S REPUTE. 243 

which was beginning to modify profoundly the culture 
and the life of Europe, was not yet shared by those who 
dwelt within the city which was its chief source, and 
reverence for Rome was nowhere less felt than in Rome 
itself. 

But the example and the labors of Brunelleschi 
were opening the way to change. He was the pio- 
neer along a path leading to, modern times. In the 
midst of conditions that must have weighed heavily 
upon him, he continued the diligent study of the re- 
mains of ancient art, investigating especially such 
structures as the Pantheon and the Baths, for the pur- 
pose of learning the methods adopted in their con- 
struction. 

Meantime his repute was slowly advancing at home, 
and when, at intervals, he visited Florence, he was con- 
sulted in respect to the public and private buildings 
with which the flourishing city was adorning herself. 
The w^ork on the Duomo was steadily proceeding. The 
eastern tribune was finished in 1407; the others were 
approaching completion. The original plan of a dome 
springing from the level of the roof of the nave had 
been recognized as unfit for the larger church. Such 
a dome w^ould have had too heavy and too low a look. 
It had been decided that the dome must be lifted above 
the level of the roof upon a massive octagonal drum ; 
and already in 141 7 the occ/ri, or round lights, of the 
drum were constructing, and the time was close at hand 
when the structure would be ready for the beginning 



244 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

of the dome itself.* The overseers of the work were 
embarrassed by the difHculty of the task by which they 
were confronted, and knew not how to proceed. If a 
framework for the centring of the dome were to be 
built up from the ground, they stood aghast at the 
quantity of timber required for it, and at the enormous 
cost, so that it seemed to them well-nigh an impossibil- 
ity, or, to speak more truly, absolutely impossible.! 

The Board of Works sought advice from Brunel- 
leschi. " But if the master builders had seen diflficul- 
ties, Philip showed them far more. And some one ask- 
ing. Is there, then, no mode of erecting it ? Philip, who 
was ingenious also in discourse, replied that if the 
thing were really impossible, it could not be done ; but 
that if it were not so, there ought to be some one in the 
world who could do the work ; and, seeing that it was a 
religious edifice, the Lord God, to whom nothing was 
impossible, would surely not abandon it." % Further 
consultations were held, and on May 19, 141 7, the opera 
voted to give to Filippo di Ser Brunellesco — " pro bona 
gratuitate " — for his labor in making drawings and em- 
ploying himself concerning the cupola, ten golden 
florins. § 

* There is no evidence in regard to the author of the design for the 
drum from which the cupola should spring, or as to the exact date of 
the beginning of the work. The anonymous biographer refers to it, Vita 
Anonima, pp. 162, 164, as if Brunelleschi had had nothing to do with it ; 
but so important a piece of construction, and so essential to the effect 
of the future dome, can hardly have been carried out without Brunel- 
leschi's counsel. 

t VitaAno7iima di Brimelleschi, p. 163. \ Id. p. 163. 

§ For this first payment to Brunelleschi for work relating to the cu- 



COMPETITION FOR THE DOME. 245 

On the 19th of August of the next year, 141 8, notice 
was given by pubhc proclamation through the city that 
whoever might wish to make a design or model of the 
vault of the chief cupola, or of anything pertaining to 
the manner and perfection of its construction, should 
do so within the next month ; and during this time, 
should he wish to speak with the authorities in charge 
of the work, he should be well and graciously heard. 
And if any one should make a design or model that 
should be adopted, or in words give advice that should 
be afterwards followed in the work, he should be rec- 
ompensed with two hundred golden florins ; and if any 
one should expend labor or make anything for the said 
object, even though his model were not adopted, his 
work should be fairly paid for by the Board of Works. 
The term for the preparation of designs and models 
was afterwards extended to the 12 th of December.* 
Fifteen models were presented; one of them was by 
Brunelleschi, one by his old rival, Ghiberti, who was still 
busy with his long-expected door, the others were by 
men of less repute from Pisa and Siena, as well as 
from Florence. 

No record remains of the deliberations of the opei^a 

pola, see Guasti, Z« Cupola dz Santa Maria del Fio7'e, Firenze, 1857. 
Doc. xvi. p. 17. 

* It would seem that the models were placed on view within the 
church itself, and that on the 13th of December a grand council was 
held for the purpose of examining and considering them. This appears 
to be Signor Guasti's opinion; but the documentary evidence is pot so 
clear as could be desired. See Guasti, Zrt: O^/f/^?, etc., Doc. xv. p. 16; 
and Prospetto Cronologico, p. 191. 



246 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

concerning these models. The business was of too 
great moment to be settled offhand. Brunelleschi 
and Ghiberti were, however, as of old, the real com- 
petitors, and during the next year both were employed 
on new models on a large scale. Brunelleschi called 
upon Donatello for assistance in his work — a work 
which was the outcome of those Roman studies in 
which they had been companions so many years be- 
fore. Donatello had already shown of what value those 
studies had been to him by works which displayed not 
only his mastery of the technical methods of ancient 
sculpture, but also the influence of its spirit upon his 
modes of conception. His own clearly defined indi- 
vidual genius had found freedom of expression through 
the study of nature in the light thrown upon it by the 
models of classic art. His poetic imagination was 
deeper than that of Ghiberti, and his conception of 
character far more vigorous. His works are the em- 
bodiments of the spirit of his time ; of its longing at 
once for truth of representation and for absolute beauty; 
of its mingling of pagan and of Christian conceptions ; 
of its new feeling concerning the life of man ; of the 
conflict between the authority of tradition and the in- 
dependence of the individual. The mingled emotions 
and conflicting aims of the Renaissance appear in 
his figures, even in figures of saints that are but the 
portraits of his contemporaries. His sculpture is the 
image of the real life of Florence when her life was 
richer and deeper than any other in the world. When 



BRUNELLESCHI'S MODEL. 247 

he joined Brunelleschi in the preparation of the model 
of the dome, he had ah-eady been much employed in 
the making of statues for the church, and he had made 
more than one of the figures which still stand in the 
niches of Or San Michele.* 

Brunelleschi was also assisted by another sculptor, 
Nanni d' Antonio di Banchi, an artist of little genius, 
but whose work partook of the inspiration of the time. 
The model was of brick, and it was intended to show 
" that there was somebody in the world who could do 
the work that seemed well-nigh an impossibility." For 
in it Brunelleschi revealed the secret he had won from 
the study of ancient building — a secret which the Ro- 
man builders themselves had not known— that of the 
way in w4iich the dome might be built without centring. 
So far as is known, no attempt of the kind had been 
previously made. It was an invention of Brunelleschi's 
own bold genius. It was not surprising that even the 
skilful builders of Florence were incredulous when they 
first heard of the project. 

On the 15th of November, 1419, the Consuls of the 
Art of Wool, " considering that the time is at hand for 
providing with all solicitude and diligence for the con- 
struction of the cupola, and considering the importance 



* In 141 5 Donatello and Brunelleschi had been employed together 
on a statue for the Duomo. Donatello's first commission from the 
opera was as early as 1406. His most famous work, the St. George of 
the Or San Michele, was probably executed not far from 1420. He was 
then at the height of his power. See Semper, Donatello, pp. 274 seq., 
85 seq. 



248 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

of the work and how much it concerns the honor of 
the commune and the aforesaid art," appointed four 
citizens to act, for six months, as " solHcitatores et con- 
ductores hedifitii preHbati." The precise nature of the 
duties of these four citizens is not set forth, but it 
would seem that their appointment was intended to 
streno-then the body of officials by whom the momen- 
tous decision in regard to the cupola was at length to 
be made, and to give to it the additional weight of their 
authority.* 

During some months the deliberations and discus- 
sions of the Board of Works were frequent and earnest, 
and it was probably in the course of this time that 
Brunelleschi presented to the four officials of the cupo- 
la a description of the mode in which the dome was to 
be built according to his model, a paper of special in- 
terest in the history of architecture, preserved to us, 
fortunately, in the pages of the anonymous biographer, f 
It is a brief, clear, and precise statement. Brunelles- 
chi's design, as set forth in it, was, in fact, to build two 
octagonal domes, or cupolas, as he termed them, sep^ 
arated by a space wide enough for passage and stair- 

* Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. i. p. 9. The provision for the remu- 
neration of these four citizens is an illustration of a curious custom 
of honorary recompense — " Providentes insuper, quod dicti quatuor 
eligendi, in fine eorum offitii, pro aliquali remuneratione habeant et 
habere debeant a dicta Arte unum ensenium extimationis et valuta- 
tionis librorum decern solid, parv. pro quolibet ipsorum, in croco pipere, 
scudellis et aliis, ut est in similibus usitatum " — "a crock of pepper, 
with platters and other things, as is customary in like cases." 

t It is given by Vasari, with some inconsiderable verbal changes, and 
has been several times reprinted in other works. 



BRUNELLESCHI'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS DESIGN. 240 

ways. The outer dome was to be a shell covering the 
inner, protecting it from the inclemency of the weather, 
and, at the same time,' securing to the construction 
more magnificent and swelling lines than w^ould be pos- 
sible with a single solid dome. The cupolas w^ere to 
be united by eight strong ribs of masonry at each an- 
gle, and by sixteen similar but smaller and concealed 
ribs on the faces of the vault. Circles of solid masonry, 
fastened with clamps of tinned iron, and reinforced by 
iron chains, were to bind the domes at suitable inter- 
vals. The ribs and the lower part of each dome w^re 
to be made of heavy hewn stone, the upper parts of 
light stone or brick. The domes were to be built with- 
out armature — that is, without support from a frame- 
work of w^ood or iron. They were to diminish in thick- 
ness as they rose, and w^ere to terminate at a central 
eye over which a lantern w^as to be constructed. The 
design had been carefully matured, and the paper ends 
with words of admirable good -sense which might well 
be inscribed in every architect's book as one of the 
aphorisms of building — " Above the height of thirty 
braccia (5744 feet) let it be built in the way that shall 
be advised and resolved upon by the masters who shall 
then be in charge of it, for in building practice teaches 
what is to be done* No more characteristic or remark- 
able design was produced during the whole period of 
the Renaissance than this with which its great archi- 
tectural achievements bcQ-an. It was the manifesto of 

* " Nel murare la pratica insegna quello che si ha da seguire." 



2 CO FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

a revolution in architecture. It marks an epoch in the 
art. Such a dome as Brunelleschi proposed to erect 
had never been built. The great domes of former 
times — the dome of the Pantheon, the dome of Santa 
Sophia — had been designed solely for their interior 
effect; they were not impressive or noble structures 
from without. But Brunelleschi had conceived a dome 
which, grand in its interior aspect, should be even more 
superb from without than from within, and which in its 
stately dimensions and proportions, in its magnificent 
lift above all the other edifices of the city of which it 
formed the centre, should give the fullest satisfaction 
to the desire common in the Italian cities for a monu- 
mental expression of the political unity and the relig- 
ious faith of their people. His work fulfilled the high- 
est aim of architecture as a civic art, in being a political 
symbol, an image of the life of the State itself. As such 
no other of the ultimate forms of architecture was so ap- 
propriate as the dome. Its absolute unity and symme- 
try, the beautiful shape and proportions of its broad 
divisions, the strong and simple energy of its upwardly 
converging lines, all satisfied the sentiment of Florence, 
compounded as it was of the most varied elements, civic, 
political, religious, and aesthetic. 

In March, 1420, the models were once more submit- 
ted to popular criticism and judgment. Finally a con- 
clusion was reached, and on the i6th of April the con- 
suls of the Art, the operarii, and the four officers of 
the cupola chose Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Battista 



THE HIGH QUALITIES OF THE FLORENTINES. 251 

d' Antonio the head master-builders of the Duomo, to 
oversee and direct the construction of the cupola, at a 
monthly salary of three golden florins each.* 

The Florentine men of business had long since 
learned the importance, first of choosing capable and 
trustworthy agents, and then of leaving them unim- 
peded in the discharge of the duties committed to 
them. The whole course of procedure in regard to 
the construction of the cupola indicates the foresight 
and good judgment of the men who had it in charge. 
It is a fine exhibition of the high qualities of Florence, 
at a period when her streets were alive with the varied 
activities of flourishing commerce, when her people 
were still confident in their own powers, full of restless 



* The words of the vote run as follows : " Nobiles et prudentes viri 
consules Artis et universitatis Artis lane civitatis Florentie, una cum 
officio operariorum Opere Sancte Marie del Fiore, et officio quattuor 
officialium Cupole maioris dicte ecclesie ; considerantes, qualiter super 
novi operis dicte Cupole costructione fuit multoties in diversis tempori- 
bus per ipsos officiales Cupole, cum quampluribus ipsius operis intelli- 
gentibus magistris et aliis hedificatoribus, praticatum et cum diligentia 
discussum, et super ipso opere quamplures modelli et alia quamplura 
facta et ordinata, et super ipso pluribus conclusionibus quamplurium 
intelligentium intellectis : volentes circa predicta, prout ad presens con- 
venire cognoscunt, providere et ipsi costructioni fiende aliquale princi- 
pium ordinare . . . providerunt, deliberaverunt atque eligerunt infra- 
scriptos Filippum ser Brunelleschi, Laurentium Bartoluccii, et Batistam 
Antonii in provisores dicti operis Cupole construendi, et ad providen- 
dum, ordinandum, et construi, ordinari, fieri et hedificari faciendum, a 
principio usque ad finem, ipsam maiorem Cupolam et hedifitium, illis 
hedefitiis magisteriis muramentis modis formis et condictionibus, et 
illis sunptibus, et aliis quibuscunque, de quibus et prout et sicut eisdem 
videbitur convenire et expedire iudicabunt, predicta eorum intelligentie 
atque prudentie conmictentes usque ad ipsius Cupole perfectionem et 
conplementum." Guasti, La Cupola, etc., Doc. Ixxi. p. 35. 



2C2 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

vivacity of mind, and when a group of such artists as 
the modern world had never seen were ennobling her 
with the products of the emulous rivalry of their gen- 
ius. At this time, says the anonymous biographer of 
Brunelleschi, our city abounded with men of worth — 
"era copiosa de' valenti uomini." The list of those 
whom the w^orld still remembers shows the truth of 
the assertion. In 1420 Brunelleschi was forty-three 
years old, Ghiberti four years younger ; Donatello was 
now thirty-four, and Fra Angelico near the same age ; 
Luca della Robbia was twenty, and soon to open new 
and delightful ways for sculpture ; Masaccio was an 
incomparable youth of nineteen, Filippo Lippi a boy 
of eight or ten. Nor were these all ; and, though her 
genius at this time chiefly displayed itself in the arts, 
Florence abounded in men of letters of almost equal 
eminence with her artists.* It was a wonderful as- 
semblage. Each man was stimulated by the work of 
his fellows to his best achievement, and the commu- 
nity was quick to recognize the powers exerted for its 



* Besides the artists mentioned above, there were, among those whose 
names are still noted, Gentile da Fabriano, born about 1370; Antonio 
Squarcialupi, the first musician of his time, born in 1380; Michelozzo 
Michelozzi, who built for Cosmo de' Medici the palace now known as 
the Palazzo Riccardi, born 1391 ; Andrea del Castagno, born about 
1390 ; Paolo Uccello, born in 1396. And among the men of letters were 
many of the most eminent humanists, such as Leonardo Bruni Aretino, 
scholar and statesman, born in 1369; the universal genius Leon Battis- 
ta Alberti, born in 1404 ; and others of less fame, but whose spirits, kin- 
dled with the new love of learning, gave lustre to Florence, and whose 
renown was a part of her glory ; such were Giannozzo Manetti, born in 
1396; Carlo Aretino, born in 1399; and Matteo Palmieri, born in 1405. 



CRITICAL SPIRIT OF THE FLORENTINES. 253 

service, and to commend and reward, if also to criti- 
cise, their work. Vasari complains that in Florence 
every man claimed to know in matters of art as much 
as the skilled masters themselves. " The city has a 
good eye and a bad tongue, and every one speaks his 
mjnd," said Vasari's contemporary, Borghini, the author 
of // Riposo.^ But the artists were the better for this 
free speaking. Donatello gave as his reason for return- 
ing to Florence from Padua, whither he had gone in 
order to make that noble statue of Gattamelata which 
is still one of the chief ornaments of the city, that if he 
stayed there longer he should forget all he knew, so 
flattered was he by every one ; while in Florence he was 
sure of blame, which would make him work and acquire 
glory, t Doubtless much of the criticism was mere ig- 
norant carping ; but no people, except the Athenian, 
have ever been so sensitive as the Florentine to the 
delight of art, or so trained to the study and apprecia- 
tion of such works as day by day made their city more 
beautiful. 

In the account given by Brunelleschi's anonymous 
biographer of the transactions relating to the cupola 
already narrated, the bare outline of events is filled out 
with many lively strokes of personal delineation. Some 
of the details which he reports have, indeed, a mythical 
character, but they add entertainment to the narrative 

* In a letter, in 1577, to Buontalenti the architect, in 'BoXXz.n, Raccolia 
di Lettere, ed. 1822, vol. i. p. 243. 
t Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, vol. iii. p. 258. 



2^4 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

as well as to its value as a picture of contemporary feel- 
ing and belief concerning the execution of the great 
work in which the interests of the community were en- 
gaged. Vasari adopted this narrative without substan- 
tial chano;e, adding^ to it, after his wont, some touches 
of his own invention, and giving a more modern form 
to the style. The story as he tells it, after the anony- 
mous biographer, has long been an accepted tradition, 
and as such is part of the history of the Duomo.* 

According to his dramatic version of the facts, Bru- 
nelleschi, having for years devoted himself to solving 
the problem of the cupola, had acquired consideration 
with the overseers of the work by displaying, on his 
visits to Florence, an assurance and spirit in his dis- 
course concerning it which other masters did not ex- 
hibit, so that at length the Board, having resolved " to 
see the end of it," wrote to him at Rome, praying him 
to come to consult with them. As he had lono: fore- 
seen that they must finally turn to him as the only man 
who could do the work, and as he had no other desire 

* The lack, in Vasari's Lives of the Artists, of a critical discrimina- 
tion between fact and fable, and the carelessness in respect to dates and 
other details which they often exhibit, detract from their authority. 
But these defects, due in great part to the literary conditions of the 
period in which they were written, are more than made up for by Va- 
sari's honest interest in his subject, his zealous collection of such in- 
formation as he could obtain, and his liveliness as a narrator. Often 
when incorrect in detail, he is yet true in general effect. Myth and 
tradition are frequently as important for the correct appreciation of the 
character of individuals, and of the moral conceptions of a given epoch, 
as the literal fact. In spite of errors, which may be corrected, and of 
misjudgments, that may be reversed, his Lives will remain an invalua- 
ble and unrivalled source of information for all students of Italian art. 



BRUNELLESCHI'S ADVICE. 255 

than to do it, he at once returned to Florence. And 
when he had come, the Board of Works of S. Maria 
del Fiore and the Consuls of the Art of- Wool being 
assembled, they told Philip all the difficulties in regard 
to the cupola, from the greatest to the least, which were 
made by the master builders who were there with them 
in his presence at the audience. Whereupon Philip 
said these words : " Gentlemen, overseers of the works, 
doubtless great things are always difficult to accom- 
plish ; and if ever anything was difficult, this affair of 
yours is more difficult than you perchance are aware ; 
for I do not know that even the ancients ever vaulted 
a vault so terrible as this will be. And I, who have 
often thought on the armatures required within and 
without, and what means could be invented so that 
men could work on it with safety, have never succeed- 
ed in solving the difficulty, and I am dismayed not 
less by the breadth than the height of the building. 
If, indeed, it could be covered with a spherical dome, 
the mode might be adopted which the Romans em- 
ployed in constructing the dome of the Pantheon at 
Rome f but here we must adopt an eight - sided de- 
sign, with such joints and bindings of masonry as 
will be most difficult to execute. But, remembering 
that this temple is dedicated to God and to the Vir- 
gin, I have confidence that we, setting to work in 
memory of him. He will not fail to infuse knowledge 
where it falls short, and to supply strength and wis- 
dom and intelligence to whosoever may undertake 



2c6 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

the task. But in what can I assist you, the work not 
being mine ?" 

Brunelleschi finished his address, according to Vasa- 
ri s report, by recommending that the best architects, 
not merely Tuscan and Itahan, but German and French, 
or of whatever nation, should be summoned to meet at 
Florence to consider and advise how the work might 
best be accomplished. This counsel pleased the con- 
suls and the Board of Works, and Vasari goes on to 
tell how the Florentine merchants who were estab- 
lished in France, in Germany, in England, and in 
Spain were commissioned to obtain from the rulers of 
those countries the most experienced and valiant gen- 
iuses in the land, and to spend whatever sum of money 
might be needed for sending them to Florence. Much 
time passed before this could be done ; but, at last, in 
1420, all these masters from beyond the mountains were 
assembled in Florence, together with those of Tuscany, 
and all the ingenious architects of the city, among them 
Brunelleschi himself. On a certain day they all met at 
the works of S. Maria del Fiore, together with the con- 
suls and the Board of Works and a choice of the most 
intelligent citizens, and then one after another spoke 
his mind as to the mode in which the dome misfht be 
built. " It was a fine thing to hear the strange and di- 
verse opinions on the matter." Some advised to build 
up a structure from the ground to support the cupola 
while it was in process of building. Others, for the 
same end, proposed heaping up a high mound of earth, 



BRUNELLESCHI'S DIFFICULTIES. 257 

in which pieces of money should be buried, so that 
when the work was done the common people would 
carry away the earth for the sake of what they might 
find in it. Others, again, urged that the cupola be built 
of pumice-stone for the sake of lightness. Only Philip 
said that the dome could be built without any such 
support of timber or masonry or earth, and was laughed 
at by all for such a wild and impracticable notion ; and, 
growing hot in the explanation and defence of his plan 
of construction, and being told to go, but not consent- 
ing, he was at last carried by main force from the as- 
sembly — " fu portato di peso f uori " — all men holding 
him stark mad. And Philip was accustomed to say 
afterwards that he was ashamed at this time to go about 
Florence, for fear of hearing it said, " See that fool there, 
who talks so wildly." The overseers of the work were 
distracted by the bewildering diversity of councils, and 
" Philip, who had spent so many years in studies for the 
sake of having this work, knew not what to do, and was 
oftentimes tempted to depart from Florence. Yet, wish- 
ing to win his object, he armed himself with patience, 
as was needful, having so much to endure, for he knew 
the brains of that city never stood long fixed on one 
resolve. Philip might have shown a little model which 
he had below, but he did not wish to show it; being 
aware of the small understanding of the consuls, the 
envy of the workmen, and the little stability of the citi- 
zens, who favored now this, now that, according to their 
pleasure. What, then, Philip had not been able to do 
17 



2c8 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

in the assembly he began to try with individuals ; and, 
speaking now to this consul, now to this member of the 
Board of Works, and in like wise to many citizens, show- 
ing them part of his design, he brought them to deter- 
mine to assign the work either to him or to one of the 
foreigners. Whereby the consuls and the Board of 
Works and the citizens being encouraged, they caused 
a new assembly to be held, and the architects disputed 
of the matter ; but they were all beaten down and over- 
come by Philip with abundant reasons. And here it is 
said that the dispute about the ^gg arose in this man- 
ner." The other architects urged him to explain his 
scheme in detail, and to show them the model he had 
made of the structure ; but this he refused, and finally 
proposed to them that the man who could prove his 
capacity by making an egg stand on end on a smooth 
bit of marble should build the cupola. To this they 
assented. All tried in vain ; and then Philip, taking the 
egg and striking it upon the marble, made it stand. 
The others, offended, declared they could have done as 
much. "Ay," said Philip, " and so, after seeing my mod- 
el, you could build the cupola." 

It was accordingly resolved that he should have 
charge of the conduct of the work, and he was di- 
rected to give fuller information concerning his plans 
to the consuls and Board of Works.* He according- 

* This m>l:h of the egg is not in the Vita Anonima, and the author 
gives another account of the preparation of the written statement. Va- 
sari may have borrowed the illustration from the story told of Colum- 
bus. 



I 



THE WORK ASSIGNED TO BRUNELLESCHI. 259 

ly, going home, wrote off a statement which he pre- 
sented the next morning to the assembly of officials, 
"and although they were incompetent to judge of it, 
yet, seeing Philip's readiness of mind, and that none 
of the architects marched so boldly as he — 'non an- 
dava con miglior gambe' — for he showed himself 
as sure of what he said as if he had already built 
ten cupolas, they proposed to give it to him, but first 
desired to see, by experiment on a small scale, how 
the vaulting could be done without armature, for in all 
other respects they approved his design. In this re- 
spect fortune was favorable," for, as Vasari goes on to 
relate, Brunelleschi was at this time engaged in build- 
ing a chapel in the Church of Santa Felicita, and an- 
other in Santo Jacopo sopr' Arno, in both of which he 
showed how what he proposed could be done. Thus 
assured, the overseers of the work assigned to him the 
building of the cupola to the height of twelve braccia,* 
not binding themselves to more before they saw how 
the work would succeed. To this Philip agreed, though 
disappointed at the condition imposed. When the art- 
ists and the citizens learned that the work had been 
committed to Philip, to some it seemed well, to others 
ill ; and a party was formed among them who remon- 
strated with the consuls and the Board of Works, rep- 
resenting that " such a work ought not to be intrusted 
to a single person, and that if there were a lack of com- 

* A Florentine braccia equals very nearly i foot 1 1 inches, exactly 
1.9148 feet, or met. 0.5835. 



2 6o FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

petent men, while in truth there was abundance of them, 
the decision might be excused ; but that it did not com- 
port with the honor of the city, seeing that if any mis- 
fortune were to happen, such as sometimes occurs in 
building, they would be blamed as having given too 
heavy a charge to one man, without consideration of the 
harm and shame that might result from it to the public, 
and that, therefore, in order to curb the ardor {furore) 
of Philip, it were well to associate some one with him 
in the work." Accordingly, Ghiberti and Battista 
d' Antonio were appointed as his associates. " What 
despair and bitterness took possession of Philip, on 
learning of this, may be known from the fact that he 
was on the point of flying from Florence ; and if it had 
not been for Donate and Luca della Robbia, who com- 
forted him, he would have gone distracted." 

There is, doubtless, a large foundation of truth in the 
representation by his biographers of the scepticism 
with which Brunelleschi's unheard-of and astonishino; 
project was received, and of the difficulty with which 
he overcame the opposition to his scheme.* The biog- 

* Among the persons who were paid for their work or advice con- 
cerning the cupola in April, 1420, was Messer Giovanni di Gherardo of 
Prato. He received three florins, while Donatello and Pesello, the 
well-known painter, had but one. In the same vote by which Brunel- 
leschi and his two associates were appointed overseers of the con- 
struction of the dome he was chosen as second substitute, Pesello being 
the first, in case either of the three should resign or be removed by 
death or other circumstance. He was at this time the public reader 
of Dante at the University of Florence, a position which he held from 
1417 till 1425. He had no faith in Brunelleschi's design, and addressed 
a scurrilous sonnet to him, in ridicule of the project, which gives no 



RIVAL CLAIMS OF GHIBERTL 26 1 

raphers may also be trusted in their representation 
of the eagerness with which Ghiberti's claim to share 
in the work on equal terms was urged, and of the 
intense spirit of partisanship displayed by the adhe- 
rents of each master. There were division of opinion 
and hot dispute among the citizens at large, as well as 
among the members of the Art of Wool. " The city 
kept the feeling about the bronze doors " — teneva dello 
umore delle porte di bronzo — is the expressive phrase 
of the anonymous biographer. The old rivalry had 
slept for eighteen years, but now blazed up with more 
than its ancient heat. Brunelleschi and his friends 
might well resent the pretensions of Ghiberti. What 
experience had he as an architect, what study had he 
given to the problems of construction involved in the 

evidence that the poetic style of the author had been affected by the 
study of the Divine Comedy. It begins — 

" O fonte fonda e nizza d' ignoranza, 
Pauper animale et insensibile," 
and goes on to say that no man can do the impossible, as Brunelleschi 
is attempting to do — Brunelleschi, who knows neither how to design 
nor to construct ; 

" Che poco sai ordire e vie men tessere." 
To this Brunelleschi replied in a sonnet that opens with a fine verse 
that reminds one of Michelangelo : 

" Ouando dall' alto ci e dato speranza," 
" When from on high we are inspired with hope, man becomes capable 
of achieving things not possible to unassisted human powers, and thus 
what seems impossible to a dull creature like Giovanni shall yet come 
to pass." In 1426 Giovanni di Gherardo addressed a remonstrance to 
the Board of Works in regard to the mode of construction adopted by 
Brunelleschi. This remonstrance and the sonnets have been edited 
and illustrated by Guasti, in his Belle Art i. Opuscoli Descrittivi e Biogra- 
fici, Florence, 1874, pp. 107-129. 



262 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

work at hand, to justify the notion that he was compe- 
tent to perform it ? But Ghiberti and his party were too 
strong to be resisted, and Brunelleschi was compelled 
to stifle his indignation at having his rival associated 
with him at an equal salary, and with the prospect of 
dividing with him the credit of an achievement which 
would belong rightfully wholly to himself. He was 
not of a temper, however, to yield to discouragement. 
He had reached the point of desire of many years; 
and though he missed the complete fulfilment of hope, 
he mi^ht trust that what was amiss in the besfinninsf 
would be righted in the progress of the undertaking. 

On the day of his appointment and that of his two 
associates, eight master builders were also chosen for 
the work. Preparations for building were at once be- 
gun. The necessary materials were collected; frame- 
works and stagings were constructed ; and on the 7th 
of August, in the morning, the masons were set to 
work, the sum of three lire nine soldi and four denari 
being spent for a cask of red wine, a flask of Trebia- 
no, bread, and melons, for a collation to celebrate the 
event.* The work, once begun, was steadily prose- 
cuted. Brunelleschi's active genius employed itself 
not only in the general oversight, but in attention to 
every detail. He invented a new and more service- 
able machine for hoistins: the materials from the 
ground to the great height to which they had to be 

* Guasti, La Cupola, etc., Doc. 239, p. 85. " Trebbiano, a kind of pre- 
cious wine in Italie." Florio, Worlde of Wordes. 



PROGRESS OF THE BUILDING. 263 

raised;* he selected the clay and devised new moulds 
for the bricks used in construction ; f he visited the 
quarries from which stone was brought, and directed 
the quarrying and the transport of the blocks ; % he 
made models for the castings that were required, and 
was ready with inventive wit to meet every difficulty in 
construction as it arose, for, as he had said, " la pratica 
insegno quella che si ebbe da seguire." 

On the 7th of July, 1422, the day of the vigil of St. 
John Baptist, the walls of the cupola had risen so high 
that they were illuminated in celebration of the feast, 
and lifted for the first time that circlet of light over the 
city which, seen in the night from Fiesole or San Mini- 
ato, looks like the crown of the fair city reposing in the 
darkness below. § In the course of 1423, Brunelleschi 
made a model of the great chain of timber and iron 
which was to gird and resist the thrust of the inner 
dome ; and for this model of one of the essential features 
of his design, and one of his most ingenious devices, he 
received a gratuity from the opera of one hundred gold- 
en florins. |1 The building of the chain was not, how- 
ever, begun till two years later, and Brunelleschi deter- 
mined not to lose the opportunity it afforded to exhibit 

* Guasti, La Cupola, etc., Doc. 123 seq. pp. 58 seq. " Nessuna cosa fu 
quantunque difficile e aspra, la quale egli non rendesse facile e piana ; 
e lo mostro nel tirare i pesi per via di contrapesi e ruote, che un sol 
bue tirava quanto arebbono appena tirata sei paia." Vasari, iii. 220. 

t Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. 169, p. 69. 

X Id. Doc. 109, p. 53. § Id. Doc. 240, p. 85. 

II In La Metropolitana Fiorentina Illustrata, Firenze, 1820, Tavola vii., 
a profile and a plan of a section of the chain are given. 



264 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

Ghiberti's incompetence and to get rid of him as an 
associate.* The workmen had come to depend entire- 
ly on Brunelleschi's directions, and without them were 
unable to proceed. Aware of this, Brunelleschi, as his 
anonymous biographer reports, one morning stayed in 
bed, feigning illness and complaining of severe pain in 
the side, so that he had hot cloths and other remedies 
applied. In his absence from the works, where he al- 
ways was wont to be the first-comer, the workmen were 
at a loss what to do, and, in their perplexity, resorted to 
Ghiberti for instructions. He, unable to direct them, 
bade them seek directions from Philip, but Philip made 
believe to be too ill to see them, and things went so far 
that the works came in great part to a stop, whereat 
there was confusion enough at the opera. The friends 
of Philip said, " Surely Lorenzo is here. If Philip is ill, 
it is not his fault ; no one regrets it more than he." And 
those of the other side charged Philip with pretending 
to be ill because he repented of having entered on the 
undertaking, and would fain find excuse to be rid of it. 
After some days, Philip, with apparent difficulty, went 
to the office of the works, and said that this might hap- 
pen again to him if God willed, or even to Lorenzo, 
and that it were well, in view of this chance, that the 
charge of the special works to be done should be di- 
vided, so that if either of them were incapacitated the 
work should not come to a stop. He went on to say 

* " Filippo fece pensiero se con industria e' si poteva levare da dosso 
Lorenzo." VitaAnonima,^. 175. 



GHIBERTrS INCOMPETENCE. 265 

that there were now two things pressing to be done — 
one, the scaffolds for the workmen in rounding the cu- 
pola, and the oversight of the masonry ; the other, the 
chain to gird it — and that Lorenzo might take in charge 
either he chose. Lorenzo was obliged to assent to 
this suggestion, and chose the making of the chain, be- 
cause there was one in the cupola of the baptistery 
which he thought he could imitate. To this Philip 
made no objection, and Ghiberti proceeded to direct 
the construction of a chain. When the work was fin- 
ished, Philip, seeing that it was good for nothing, showed 
to the Board of Works that it would not answer its pur- 
pose, so that they res.olved it should be done away with, 
and Philip was ordered to make the chain according 
to his own design.* 

The fact of the exposure, about this time, of the in- 
competence of Ghiberti receives confirmation from the 
records. The salaries of Brunelleschi and Ghiberti 
had run on for five years at the rate at which they had 
been originally fixed; but on the 2Sth of June, 1425, a 
vote was passed by the Board of Works that Ghiberti's 
salary should cease from the first day of the coming 
July. Now this vote, read in the light of the story, is 
in curiously close relation with an entry in the records 
on the preceding 6th of June, of the cost of wine bought 
for the masters and workmen of the opera " when the 
chain was begun." It is a fair inference that the stop- 

* Vita Anonima, pp. 175-178. Vasari repeats the stoty after the earHer 
biographer, with some characteristic amplifications, vol. iii. pp. 214-219. 



266 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

page of his salary was the result of Ghiberti's failure in 
the execution of the chain. The next January, indeed, 
his salary was renewed at the old rate, of three florins 
a month, on condition that he should spend at the 
works at least one hour of every working day, while 
that of Brunelleschi was increased almost threefold — to 
one hundred florins a year, on condition that he should 
give his whole time to the edifice.* This arrangement 
continued till 1432, when Ghiberti's salary ends, and his 
connection with the work apparently comes to a close.f 

* The retention of Ghiberti on the work may have been a piece of 
policy to prevent his active opposition, and to secure the voices of his 
friends. In 1424 the door for the baptistery, on which he had been at 
work so long, was completed and set in place. It received general and 
just admiration, and confirmed his repute as the first master of his art. 
The account which he gives at the end of his Second Cotnmeniary of 
his share in the building of the dome is neither candid nor correct, and 
its arrogant tone indicates the disposition of the man. " Few things 
of importance have been done in our city which were not designed or 
ordered by my hand. And specially in the building of the tribune [cu- 
pola] Philip and I were associates [coftcorrentz} for eighteen years at the 
same salary." Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, vol. i. p. xxxvii. The true state- 
ment would have been " associates for twelve years, and during the first 
five our salaries were the same, while during the remaining years mine 
was little more than a third of his." 

The difficulty of establishing a correct chronology for the lives of 
the artists, for which Vasari, with his indifference to exactness, is our 
chief authority, is increased by the carelessness of editors. In a note 
in his new edition of Vasari, Florence, 1878, tomo ii. p. 358, Milanesi 
states that Ghiberti continued to be the associate of Brunelleschi in 
the work oi the cupola till June, 1446. But Brunelleschi died in April 
of that year, and Ghiberti's connection with the work had terminated 
fourteen years previously. Milanesi adds to the confusion by going on 
to state that Brunelleschi was chosen sole overseer of the cupola in 
1443. In that year he was appointed sole overseer of the lantern 
which was to be erected upon the dome. He had long been sole over- . 
seer of the cupola. 

t Guasti, La Ctipola,zlc., Doc. 74, p. 38 ; Doc. 242, p. 85 ; Doc. 75-84, 
pp. 38-45. 



PROGRESS OF THE DOME. 267 

Towards the end of the year 1425, in January (it is 
to be remembered that the Florentine year began in 
March), Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, together with one 
of the Officials of the Cupola and the head-master of the 
works, united in an important report to the Board, as 
to the work in progress and that which was to be next 
undertaken. It is plain from it that the difficulties of 
building such a vault without centring were increasing 
as the curve ascended. On the inner side of the vault 
a parapet of planks was to be made, to protect the scaf- 
folding and to cut off the sight of the masters from the 
void beneath them, for their greater security. " We say 
nothing of centring," say the builders, "not that it 
might not have given greater strength and beauty to 
the work," which may well be doubted, " but, not hav- 
ing been started with, a centring would now be un- 
desirable, and could hardly be made without arma- 
ture, for the sake of avoiding which the centring was 
dispensed with at the beginning." * Brunelleschi's gen- 
ius was sufficient to overcome all the difficulties met 
with in accomplishing the bold experiment which he 
had devised, and which in its kind still remains without 
parallel. 

Many entries in the records afford a lively impres- 
sion of scenes and incidents connected with the build- 

* Guasti, La Cupola, etc., Doc. 75, p. 38. The vote in which this re- 
port is included was first printed by Nelli, Piatite ed Alsati di S. Maria 
del F tore, Firenze, 1765 ; afterwards in the Vita di Filippo di Ser Bru- 
nellesco, by Baldinucci, ed. Moreni, Firenze, 181 2, and again in La JMetro- 
■politana Fiorentina, Firenze, 1820. 



268 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

ing. With all the precautions that could be taken, the 
exposure of the workmen to the risk of falling was 
great Two men were thus killed in the first year of 
the work. As the dome rose, the danger increased ; and 
a provision was made that any of the masters or labor- 
ers who preferred to work below might do so, but at 
wages one quarter less. Brunelleschi, finding that, owing 
to the vast height of the edifice, the builders lost much 
time in going down for food and drink, arranged a 
cook-shop, and stalls for the sale of bread and wine, in 
the cupola itself. Thenceforth no one was allowed to 
go down from his work oftener than once a day. But 
the supply of wine in the cupola caused a new danger, 
and an order was issued by the Board that, " considering 
the risks which may daily threaten the master masons 
who are employed on the wall of the cupola, on ac- 
count of the wine that is necessarily kept in the cupola, 
from this time forth the clerk of the works shall not 
allow any wine to be brought up which has not been 
diluted with at least one third of water." But the work- 
men were reckless, and amused themselves, among other 
ways, in letting themselves and each other down on the 
outside of the dome in mere sport, or to take young 
birds from their nests, till at length the practice was 
forbidden by an order of the Board. 

So year by year the work went on ; the walls slowly 
rounding upwards. During the first years of the build- 
ing of the dome, Florence was enjoying a period of un- 
wonted peace and prosperity. She was tranquil at 



WAJ^ ABROAD, DEPRESSION AT HOME. 269 

home, and without war abroad. Her trade was flour- 
ishing, and her commerce extending. But in 1423 the 
encroachments of Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan 
forced a war upon her, which, beginning with disaster, 
soon told with terrible effect upon her resources and 
her spirit. It was, indeed, carried on, for the most part, 
with mercenary troops, and cost the city far more in 
money and in honor than in the blood of her people. 
The republic had lost the art of defending herself with 
the strong arm of her own children. She had become 
dependent upon hireling soldiery; and such depend- 
ence, sign as it was of the decline of public spirit and of 
private character, was a forerunner of the long series of 
political calamities which was to end in her fall. The 
burden of the war pressed heavily upon all classes, es- 
pecially upon the poor. The taxes became heavier and 
heavier; forced loans were resorted to ; in 1425 many of 
the leading bankers and merchants were compelled to 
fail ; the revenues of the opera of the Duomo fell off, 
and in April, 1426, it was resolved to dismiss twenty- 
five out of forty-three master builders employed, and to 
diminish other expenses of the work.* Peace was made 
in 1428. A new and more equitable system of taxation 
had been adopted, and the city began to rejoice in the 
return of prosperity. But the breathing-spell was short. 
One war was scarcely ended before another began. In 
1430 the Florentines were besieging their beautiful 
neighbor Lucca, and distressing her territory with even 
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc., Doc. 220, p. 81. 



2 70 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

more than the usual barbarity of war in which the sol- 
diers were mere hired ruffians. " At this time there 
was in Florence," says Machiavelli, " an eminent archi- 
tect, named Philip di Ser Brunellesco, of whose works 
our city is full, so that he deserved that after his death 
his image in marble should be placed in the chief tem- 
ple of Florence, with an inscription beneath, which still, 
to such as read it, bears witness of his virtues. He 
showed how Lucca might be overflowed, taking into 
consideration the site of the city and the bed of the 
river Serchio, and finally induced the Ten* to order 
that the attempt be made. From which proceeded 
naught but confusion to our camp, and security to the 
enemy." f Brunelleschi might better have kept to his 
own work, to which he returned on the 12th of June, 
after an absence of a hundred days. His failure in the 
field did him no service in Florence ; :j: Ghiberti remained 
always jealous ; and there were always people about, 
says the anonymous biographer, " who made a circle," 
or, in modern phrase, " a ring," and gave him much trou- 



* The Ten elected commissioners in charge of the war — " i Dieci 
della Guerra." 

t Machiavelh", Istorie Fioreiitine, lib. iv. § 23. 

t Giovanni Cavalcanti, the fair-minded and trustworthy contempo- 
rary chronicler of these times, writes, " Egli ebbono alcuni nostri fantas- 
tichi, intra quali fu Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, i quali consigliorno con 
la loro geometria falsa e bugiarda, non in se, ma nell' altrui ignoranza, 
mostrorno che la citta di Lucca si poteva allagare ;" quoted by Gervi- 
nus, Geschichte der flore7itinischen Historiographie, p. 78. Poggio, in 
his Hist. Floroitini Popiili, lib. vi., in Muratori, Rer. Hal. Script, torn. 
XX. p. 363, gives a clear account of the project of Brunelleschi — " maxi- 
mo omnium ejus tempestatis architect© " — and of its failure. 



PROGRESS OF THE DOME. 



271 



ble with their continual gossip and false reports, sow- 
ino^ dissatisfaction amons^ the master workmen. The 
result was a strike among the masters for higher wages, 
whereupon, one Saturday night, Philip dismissed them 
all, to the number of forty masters and apprentices, and 
engaged eight or ten Lombard masons in their place. 
The strikers, finding that they were not indispensable 
to the construction, as they had fancied, and lamenting 
the loss of their places, made humble submission, and, 
after eleven weeks, thirty-nine of them were taken again 
upon the works.* 

Although they were engaged in such costly under- 
takings abroad, and the war went against them, yet the 
Florentines, as Machiavelli says, " did not fail to adorn 
their city." The work on the Duomo was now active- 
ly pushed forward. The second chain to resist the 
thrust of the inner cupola was constructed, and in 1432 
the dome had reached such a height that Brunelleschi 
was ordered to make a model of the closing of its sum- 
mit, and also a model of the lantern that was to stand 
on it, in order that full consideration might be given 
to the work, and due provision for it made in advance. 
Two years more passed, years in which the city was 
busied with public affairs of great concern both at home 
and abroad, when at length, on the 12th of June, 1434, 



* The story first told by the anonymous writer, p. i8o, is retold with 
more detail by Vasari, pp. 218, 219, and is confirmed by two documents 
of December 12 and February 27, 1430 (Florentine style), in Guasti, 
La Ctipola, etc., p. 83. 



2 72 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

just fourteen years from its beginning, the cupola cloSed 
over the central space of the Duomo.* It had grown 
slowly, marvellous in the eyes of all beholders, who saw 
its walls rise curving over the void without apparent 
support, held suspended in the air as if by miracle. 
Brunelleschi's fame was secure ; henceforth his work 
was chief part of Florence. But though the cupola had 
reached its wished-for end — "devenisse ad optatum 
finem sue clausure" — something remained still to be 
done upon it for its perfect completion, and other work 
was required to bring the whole church into fit condi- 
tion for public use, which was now ardently desired by 
the people of the city. The opera, therefore, determined 
to cover the roofs of the tribunes with lead, to make 
some necessary repairs in the walls of the older part of 
the church, and to build anew certain chapels on each 
side of the nave, before proceeding with the erection of 
the lantern above the dome.t 

In the early summer of 1434, the Pope, Eugenius IV., 
flying from enemies in Rome, was received with great 
ceremony and display at Florence. A residence was 

* Guasti, La Cupola, etc., p. 199. The date is from Cambi, Storta 
Fiorentina, p. 188. Migliore, in his Fi'retize Illustrata, 1684, p. 13, gives 
the date as 12th of January, but this seems a typographical error; see 
Guasti, Doc. 260, p. 90. Considering the size and the difficulty of the 
work, the time employed on its construction proves the diligence with 
which it had been carried on. In the trustworthy Notizie e Giiida di 
Fzrenze [da P. Thouar ed E. RepettiJ, i84i,the height of the cupola is 
stated at 61 Florentine braccia, which equals 116.80 English ft.; the 
height of its spring from the pavement is 93 braccia, or 178.07 ft., mak- 
ing the total height to its summit about 295 ft. 

t Guasti, Id. Doc. 259, p. 89. 



THE CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 273 

assigned to him in the conventual buildings attached 
to Sta. Maria Novella, and here the papal court was for 
the time established, and new interests and new pictu- 
resqueness were added to the crowded and various ac- 
tivities of Florentine life. The Pope, grateful for the 
treatment he received from the authorities of State and 
for the honors paid him by the citizens, desired to make 
such return as was in his power. He bestowed the 
Rose of Gold * on St. Mary of the Flower, and he will- 
ingly undertook, at the request of the republic, to per- 
form in person the ceremony of the consecration of the 
church on the Feast of the Annunciation, the Floren- 
tine New-year's-day, the 25th of March, 1436. From 
the portal of Sta. Maria Novella to the wide steps of 
Sta. Maria del Fiore, a distance of more than a quarter 
of a mile, a platform was erected, raised about four feet 
from the ground, and about eight feet in width. An 
awning of blue and white cloth, the colors of the Pope, 
was stretched above it, and the posts by which the awn- 
ing was supported were festooned with boughs of myr- 
tle and olive, fir and cypress. The floor of the platform 
was carpeted, and its sides hung with tapestries. Along 
this decorated way, in view of a vast concourse of citi- 
zens and strangers, who occupied windows and roofs, 

* On the fourth Sunday of Lent, the Pope, in going to and returning 
from church, carries in his hand a golden rose, which used afterwards 
to be given to the most noble and powerful personage of his court. In 
later custom it has been common to bestow it as a mark of grace on 
monarchs and others in high station. Durandus gives a long account 
of the mystical and allegorical significance attaching to it. See his Ra- 
tionale Divinoriim Officiorinn, lib. vi. cap. 53, num. 8. 

18 



2 74 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

and lined the streets, gay with festal adornments, the 
Pope, in his pontifical robes, proceeded with splendid 
pageant to the cathedral. Before him was borne the 
cross, behind him came cardinals and bishops, and the 
whole Court of Rome, prelates and ambassadors from 
foreign states, and the Signory and high oiificers of Flor- 
ence. The city had seldom witnessed so magnificent 
a display. The liking for such shows, and the art to 
set them forth with dignity and splendor, were charac- 
teristic features of the period. 

The ceremony of consecration is one of the most 
impressive of the stately and solemn offices of the Ro- 
man Church. Its symbolic forms, full of a significance 
that appeals directly to the imagination, are invested 
with associations that touch the deepest Christian sen- 
timent. The consecration of the visible edifice is the 
type of the union of the mystic bride with her Lord. 
Three times does the consecrating prelate, bishop or 
pope as he may be, knock with his pastoral staff at 
the closed door, saying, " Attollite portas, principes, ves- 
tras, et elevamini portae aeternales: et introibit Rex 
glorizE." Then a voice from within asks, " Quis est 
iste Rex glorioe?" And the answer is returned in 
the words of the psalm, " Dominus fortis et potens ;" 
and to the repeated question, answer is made again, 
"Dominus virtutum ipse est Rex gloriae."* Then the 

* " Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting 
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory ? 
The Lord strong and mighty. . . . The Lord of hosts, he is the King of 
glory." Psalm xxiv. 7-10; in the Vulgate, Psalm xxiii. 



I 



CEREMONIES OF CONSECRATION. 275 

doors are thrown wide open, and the bishop, entering, 
says, " Pax huic domui, et omnibus habitantibus in ea," 
thus signifying that peace which Christ wrought be- 
tween God and man. 

On this great day for Florence the cathedral w^as 
decorated with unusual lavishness and splendor. The 
Pope consecrated and blessed the high -altar, and the 
Cardinal Orsini anointed the twelve crosses painted 
upon the four walls, before each of which twelve candles 
w^ere burning. With symbolic rites, and with prayer, 
with chant and procession, the service lasted for five 
hours. But this w^as not all ; the consecration was fol- 
lowed by another ceremony in curious contrast — con- 
trast characteristic of the temper of the time — to the 
sacred offices just concluded. The Pope, with intent 
to pay still more honor to the city w^hose support was 
of great importance to him, desired that the order of 
knighthood should be conferred in his presence, within 
the church, upon the Gonfalonier of Florence, Giuliano 
Davanzati. The ceremony was duly performed, and the 
Pope, after the arming of the knight, clasped with his 
own hand the collar of knighthood around his neck, " a 
thing never before done to any citizen." Then the Car- 
dinal of Venice said mass, and finally the Pope gave his 
blessing to the people, conceding to them, and to whoso- 
ever thenceforth, on the anniversary of that feast, should 
hear high mass within the Duomo, seven years and 
seven times forty days of indulgence. That night the 
Gonfalonier gave a grand banquet in the palace, and 



2^6 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

the Signory, in recognition of the favors received from 
the Pope, voted " to give to him fourteen prisoners of 
importance." * 

At the time of the consecration of the cathedral, 
Cosimo de' Medici was the chief man in the Florentine 
commonwealth. His recall from exile in 1434 had been 
followed by the banishment or death of the prominent 
leaders of the party opposed to him in the State, and 
from this period till his death, in 1464, his influence and 
authority were predominant in public affairs. He was 
now in the prime of life. His character was strong and 
reserved, his will resolute, his intelligence clear and re- 
ceptive. The fervent spirit common to the men of the 
Renaissance was tempered in him by the solid common- 
sense of the Florentine burgher, and by early training 
in the business of his father's bank. He had been care- 
fully educated, and was endowed by nature with a taste 
for learning and a powerful memory. He was the rich- 



* For the account of the procession, see the eye-witness Vespasiano 
da Bisticci's description in his memoir of Eugenius IV., in his Vite di 
Uomini Illiistri del Sccolo X V. These Lives by the bookseller Vespa- 
siano are one of the most precious books of the century. There is no 
other that brings us so closely face to face with the men of Florence. 
The simplicity and candor of Vespasiano's character appear in his nar- 
ratives. The book affords many illustrations of the literary aspect of 
the early Renaissance. Unfortunately, Vespasiano seems to have cared 
little for the arts except those connected with book -making, such as 
calligraphy, illumination, and binding. But the student of the fine arts 
of the Renaissance will find much of incidental interest in Vespasiano's 
pleasant pages, See also, in regard to the consecration, Ammirato, 
Istorie Florentine, lib. xxi., ed. 1826, tomo vi. p. 245, and Machiavelli, 
Istorie Fiorenti7te, lib. v. § 15. In regard to the release of prisoners, see 
ante,^i^. 134, 215. 



CO SI MO DE' MEDICI. 2 77 

est man in Italy, but he was not less liberal in the use 
than skilful in the acquisition of wealth. His habit of 
thought was grave ; he was the friend of scholars and 
artists ; and no man in his time did more to stimulate 
the zeal for the acquisition of new learning, or to pro- 
mote the works by which the dignity and the beauty 
of Florence were increased. During the stay of Pope 
Eugenius in the city, Cosimo, at his suggestion, under- 
took to rebuild the Convent of St. Mark, and employed 
Michellozzi, a man of genius, second only as an archi- 
tect to Brunelleschi, for the work. On the walls of 
this convent Fra Angelico painted his famous frescos, 
and fifty years later one of its cells was occupied by 
Savonarola.* 

It was about this time that Cosimo, having rejected 
a plan for a palace designed for him by Brunelles- 
chi, as too sumptuous and magnificent for a private 
citizen, set Michelozzi to building that famous palace, 
still one of the noblest in Florence, which, according to 
Vasari, deserves the more praise because it was the first 
in that city built in the modern style with appropriate 
distribution of apartments.! On the ornaments of this 

* Vespasiano, who was well acquainted with Cosimo, and who, in his 
Lives, has drawn an extremely interesting, life-like, and attractive por- 
trait of him, represents this work as undertaken by Cosimo to relieve 
his conscience from the burden of ill-gotten wealth. Vespasiano's ac- 
count of his various pious buildings, and of the collection of books with 
which he supplied more than one convent library, is both entertaining 
and instructive. 

t Vasari, Life of Michclozzo Michclozsi, iii. 272. This palace passed, in 
the seventeenth century, into the hands of the Riccardi family, by whom 
it was enlarged, and it has since been known as the Palazzo Riccardi. 



278 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

palace Donatello was employed, and the walls of its 
chapel were painted by Benozzo Gozzoli with a series 
of beautiful pictures representing the Journey of the 
Wise Men of the East, in which may still be seen the 
portraits of Cosimo and other famous men of the time. 
Cosimo kept builders, sculptors, and painters well em- 
ployed, and his example was followed by many of the 
rich citizens. The arts were seldom busier in Flor- 
ence, their chief modern workshop, than in these years.* 
Not long after the consecration of the Duomo, the 
work on the cupola was completed,! and on the 30th 

* In 1426-27 it seems probable that Masaccio was painting his epoch- 
making pictures, "the first of the modern style," in the Capella Bran- 
cacci ; in 1432 Ghiberti, still at work on his second door, designed the 
great tabernacle for the altar in the Ujffizio of the Art of Flax-dress- 
ers, which the next year was painted by Fra Angelico, " di dentro e di 
fuori, CO colori oro, azzurro et arieto, de' migliori et piii fini che si truo- 
vino, con ogni sua arte et industria." See the memorandum of con- 
tract in Gualandi, Mcmorie Originali risgtiardaiiti le Belle Arti, ser. iv. 
p. 1 10. Bologna, 1843. The tabernacle " painted within and without " 
is now in the Uffizi Gallery. In 1434 Filippo Lippi was painting for 
the high-altar of Sant' Ambrogio that most lovely " Coronation of the 
Virgin " now in the Academy, and known by its portrait of the painter 
and the angel with the scroll bearing the words Is pcrfecit opus. In these 
years Donatello was busy with tender figures for tombs, and with stat- 
ues for the Duomo and the Campanile. In 1437 Luca della Robbia was 
working on his bass-reliefs, beautiful in design and execution, for the 
Campanile. In 1436 Paolo Uccello was painting his big equestrian por- 
trait of Giovanni Acuto — the adventurer John Hawkwood — on the wall 
of the Duomo. Such were some of the works going on ; many scarcely 
less beautiful or less interesting, done in these years, have perished or 
have dropped from memory. The great moments in history — and 
there have been but few of them — are those when a people has much 
to express, and finds expression for itself by means of artists sympa- 
thetic with its higher moods, and capable of giving to them just ut- 
terance. 

+ In 1434 a commission was given to Donatello and Luca della Rob- 
bia to make, each of them, a head in clay, " prout eis et cuilibet eorum 



BENEDICTION OF THE DOME. 379 

of August, 1436, the Bishop of Fiesole, attended by 
clergy and peojDle, mounted to the dome in order to 
bestow upon it a solemn benediction. Among the en- 
tries in the journal of expenses of the opera is one for 
money spent on that day for a gift to the bishop, and 
"for trumpeters and fifers, wine, bread, meat, fruit, 
cheese and macaroni, and other things," * given to the 
masters and workmen, and to the canons and priests, 
for the celebration of this feast and benediction. 

It was just after the completion of the dome that 
Leon Battista Alberti, the most universal genius and 
the most accomplished man of his age, one who repre- 
sented in clearest traits the spirit of the Renaissance, 
was restored to Florence, whence his family had long 
been banished. The close of his exile was a result of 
the revolution accomplished by the return of Cosimo 
de' Medici in 1434. The impression which the works 
accomplished by the living generation of Florentine 
artists made upon this son of Florence born in exile, 
who till his thirtieth year had never entered his ances- 
tral city, was very deep, and it finds striking and mem- 
orable expression in the dedication to Brunelleschi of 
his treatise on Painting which was written in the year 
1436.1 " I have been accustomed," says Alberti, in this 



videbitur melius et pulcrius," to serve as a model for a head to be cut 
in stone to be set " in gula clausure cupole magne." Guasti, La Cupola, 
etc., Doc. 252, p. 88. 

* Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. 261, p. 90. 

t Delia Pitt lira di Leon Battista Alberti Libri Tre, of which the last 
and best edition is that of Janitschek, No. XL of the series of Quellen- 



28o FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

dedication, in words that breathe the feehng of the 
Renaissance, "both to wonder and to grieve that so 
many supreme and divine arts and sciences, which, 
aUke from their works and from history, we see to have 
abounded in those most highly endowed ancients, were 
now lacking and almost utterly lost. And, indeed, hear- 
ing from many that this was the case, I thought that 
Nature, mistress of all things, now grown old and weary, 
even as she no longer brought forth giants, in likewise 
no longer produced geniuses such as those most ample 
and marvellous spirits which she produced in her youth- 
ful and more glorious days. 

" But since I have been restored, after long exile, in 
which I, Alberti, have grown old, to this our native land, 
that surpasseth all others in her adornment, I have recog- 
nized in many, but chiefly in thee, Philip, and in our near 
friend Donate the sculptor, and in those others, Nen- 
cio and Luca and Masaccio, genius capable for every 
praiseworthy work, not inferior to that of any ancient 
and famous master in the arts.* Wherefore I perceived 
that in our own industry and diligence, not less than in 
the kindness of nature and of the ages, lay the power 
of acquiring praise for every excellence. I acknowl- 
edge, indeed, that as it was less dii^cult for the ancients, 

sch7-jfte7i fur Ktmstgeschichte tind Kiinsttechnik des Mittelalters tmd der 
Renaissance, herausgegeben von R. Eitelberger v. Edelberg. Wien, 1877. 
* Nencio was the familiar name of Lorenzo Ghiberti, and this easy- 
reference to him is pleasant as showing that whatever bitterness of 
feeling may have existed between him and Brunelleschi, it did not ren- 
der the expression of admiration for him difficult in words addressed 
to the great architect. Luca is Luca della Robbia. 



ALBERTVS DEDICATION. 28 1 

having abundant supply of teachers and of models, to 
rise to the knowledge of those supreme arts which are 
to-day most laborious for us, even so much the greater 
should be our fame if we, without preceptors and with- 
out examples, invent arts and sciences unheard of and 
never before seen. Who is so unfeeling or so envious 
that he would not praise Pippo (Brunelleschi), the ar- 
chitect, beholding here a structure so grand, lifted to 
the heavens, ample to cover with its shadow the whole 
Tuscan people, erected without aid of framework or 
multitude of timbers — a work of art in truth, if I judge 
rightly, such as, deemed incredible in these times of 
ours, was neither conceived nor known by the ancients? 
But there will be another place for reciting thy praises 
and the virtue of our Donato, and of the others most 
dear to me by their ways. Do thou only persevere in 
inventing as thou dost from day to day things by which 
thy marvellous genius shall acquire perpetual fame and 
name, and if perchance some leisure shall fall to thee, 
it will please me shouldst thou look over this little 
book of mine on painting, which, inscribed to thee, I 
have written in the Tuscan tongue." 

The early part of the fifteenth century has not left 
us a more interesting record than this of personal rela- 
tions, or a better illustration of the disposition of the 
age, and of contemporary criticism upon its chief pro- 
ductions. 

The completion of the cupola was not the comple- 
tion of Brunelleschi's work. Upon the cupola was 



282 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

to stand the lantern, that was to form the proper 
summit of the whole vast edifice, and on the pro- 
portions and design of which the effect of the dome 
itself would be greatly dependent. The Board of 
Works had long had Brunelleschi's model in their 
hands, and can scarcely have doubted that he was the 
man to put the crown upon his own work ; but the 
busy circle of critics and rivals was to be considered, 
and, if possible, conciliated. The familiar means was 
adopted of asking for models from all such persons as 
might desire to make one, and of exhibiting them to 
the public. " All the masters who were in Florence," 
says Vasari, " after seeing Filippo's model, set to work 
to make one, and even a woman of the house of Gaddi 
ventured into the competition." The opera gave notice 
that all the models must be ready by the 15th of Sep- 
tember of this year, 1436 ; and at that time five models, 
besides that of Brunelleschi, were presented, one of 
them by Ghiberti, who could not desist from the old 
habit of rivalry. 

An assembly was convened to consider and pro- 
nounce upon the models. It was composed of a great 
number of masters of theology, of very many doctors, 
of architects, goldsmiths, and masters of numerous other 
arts, as well as of many citizens, and the general opinion 
was in favor of Brunelleschi's design. But this was not 
enough. Three meetings of the Board were held, at 
which were present two architects, two painters, two 
goldsmiths, one mathematician iarismetrictis), and two 



REPORT ON MODELS OF THE LANTERN. 283 

of the more intelligent citizens of Florence, ingenious 
and versed in the art of architecture, who, after study- 
ing the matter well, gave their opinion in writing con- 
cerning the models ; and, finally, a committee was ap- 
pointed consisting of seven of the most respected and 
notable citizens, among them Cosimo de' Medici, who, 
after due deliberation, gave their opinion in the follow- 
ing terms : " that, having examined the models for the 
construction and arrangement of the lantern, and con- 
sidered diligently the experiments conducted, and the 
reports made upon the said models by numerous ar- 
chitects, painters, goldsmiths, and other intelligent citi- 
zens, it seems to them that the model of Philip Master 
Brunelleschi is best in form, and possesses the best parts 
of perfection ; in that it is stronger than the other mod- 
els, and also lighter in fact and in appearance ; further, 
in that it is better lighted ; and, finally, in that it is well 
devised to resist injury from water. And, for these afore- 
said reasons and causes, it seemiS to them that the lan- 
tern should be made and constructed according to the 
model of the said Philip, and that the same Philip should 
be intrusted with the work to put it in execution, with 
these conditions, to wit : that the Board of Works should 
have Philip before them, and should, committing this 
charge to him with such words as may be required, de- 
sire him to be pleased to lay aside all rancor, if any abide 
in him, and to correct and amend such part of the said 
model as he may judge to be defective, although in 
slight degree ; and to take and adopt into his own de- 



284 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

sign what things are good and useful in the other mod- 
els, to the end that the said lantern may have all its 
parts perfect ; in regard to all these matters laying the 
burden upon his conscience. And they give the afore- 
said advice, taking into account the above-mentioned 
counsels, and having regard to the marvellous work of 
the great cupola, which by his virtue he has brought to 
the desired end." Having given due consideration to 
this memorable opinion, the Board of Works, " wishing" 
(these were their words) " to make a beginning of such 
a lantern as is befitting to a work so magnificent and 
admirable as the great cupola, and such as is desired 
by the whole people of Florence," proceeded, on the 
31st of December, 1436, to a formal and secret vote, 
and " unanimously determined and decreed that the 
said lantern should be constructed and built accord- 
ing to the model of the aforesaid Philip Master Bru- 
nelleschi, and that the ordering and execution of the 
work should be committed to Philip in the manner 
and form advised by the worthy and eminent citizens 
aforesaid." * 

The work, being thus completely intrusted to Bru- 
nelleschi, should have gone forward rapidly ; and, indeed, 
fifteen days after his appointment, Philip, accompanied 
by three of the masters employed by the opera, made 

* These instructive and remarkable proceedings are set forth in full 
in the records of the Board of Works. See Guasti, La Cupola, etc., 
Doc. 273, pp. 93-95. They afford another illustration of the excellent 
spirit and methods of the Florentines in the conduct of great public 
works. 



CHANGES IN THE FLORENTINE CHARACTER. 285 

a journey to the quarries of Camplglia to see whether 
the marble required in the construction of the lantern 
could be obtained from them. But the work of actual 
building was not begun. Year after year there was de- 
lay. The cause of this slackness cannot now be ascer- 
tained. The public temper of Florence had undergone 
a great change since the last century. The city was 
contentedly submitting to the gradual loss of its inde- 
pendence ; it was wearied and exhausted by the turbu- 
lence and the efforts of many generations. It preferred 
quiet and material prosperity, with loss of liberty, to the 
strenuous exertions required for self-government and 
to the frequent recurrence of disturbances resulting 
from such democratic institutions as those of which 
it had long had experience. There is nothing sur- 
prising in this. The steadiest human motives are 
those of a material order. The hio;her motives are 
seldom other than inconstant and irres^ular incite- 
ments to the mass of men, even in communities in 
which the averao^e of character is hio^h. In Florence 
that generous sense of common civic interests wiiich 
had inspired and in great measure united her citizens, 
in spite of imbittered party divisions, had gradually de- 
clined. The ancient faith, which had been the support 
of morality, was weakened and undermined by the new 
thought of the Renaissance. The standard of personal 
conduct was lowered. The increase of intelligence was 
accompanied with a growth of selfishness. The very 
development of individuality which was characteristic 



286 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

of the period tended to enfeeble the commonwealth. 
Men gave themselves up to private ends and enter- 
prises. They built and adorned palaces rather than 
churches. * 

Moreover, at this time the Florentines were oc- 
cupied by concerns which, although of high ecclesias- 
tical significance, gave curious indication of the de- 
cline in power of religious ideas over the minds and 
lives of clergy and laity alike. The Church was dis- 
tracted by bitter internal discord. There were rival 
popes — two opposing infallibles. There were rival 
councils, each claiming to be oecumenical. The coun- 
cil that had met at Ferrara was conspicuous by the 
presence of the chief prelates of the Eastern Church, 
and of the Emperor of the East, John Palasologus, 
whose splendid pretensions and nominal dignities were 
in sharp contrast with his shrunken possessions and fee- 
ble authority. After long intrigue, the Greek bishops, 
induced by bribery, compelled by poverty and fear of 
the Turks, influenced by a multitude of considerations, 
personal, political, and ecclesiastical, had come with in- 
tent to defend, indeed, their ancient opinions on the 
points of difference by which the Latin and the Greek 
Church had for six hundred years been divided, but 

* In a noted passage in his History, Varchi, describing the city of 
Florence, says, citing as his authority Benedetto Dei, " a dihgent and 
sensible person," that between the years 1450 and 1478 thirty palaces 
were built. Most of these were magnificent and stately edifices. There 
were thirty-five palaces of older date. At the same period there were 
one hundred and thirty-eight gardens within the walls. Storia Fioren- 
tina, lib. ix. §§ 38, 39. 



THE COUNCIL OF FLORENCE. 287 

prepared finally to yield them for the sake of a union 
from which they might hope for at least material benefit. 
The age was not one to breed martyrs for mere doc- 
trine's sake. Driven from Ferrara by the plague, Pope, 
Emperor, and Council betook themselves to Florence, 
where, in the winter of 1439, they were welcomed with 
magnificent hospitality. The city was filled with illus- 
trious guests from many lands. The debates in the 
Council were protracted through several months. At 
length, " on a solemn day," says the excellent Vespasi- 
ano — it was the 6th of July — " the Pope, with all the 
Court of Rome, and the Emperor of the Greeks, with all 
the bishops and prelates, went to St. Mary of the Flower, 
which had been prepared as beseemed such an occa- 
sion. The Pope, the cardinals, and the prelates of the 
Roman Church took their places on the side where the 
Gospel is read, and on the other side was the Emperor 
of Constantinople, with all the Greek bishops and arch- 
bishops." All were arrayed in their richest robes of 
ceremony, and " the style of the Greek dresses seemed 
far more grave and becoming than that of the Latin 
prelates." The Pope sang a solemn mass; Cardinal 
Julian, and Bessarion, Archbishop of Nicaea, read from 
the pulpit, in their respective tongues, the act of union, 
and " mutually embraced in the name and in the pres- 
ence of their applauding brethren," and before the mul- 
titude of spectators of so singular and splendid a scene, 
who crowded the vast nave of the cathedral, and filled 
the space beneath its majestic dome. " All the world 



2 88 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

had slathered in Florence to witness an act of such 
dignity." * 

Many notable ceremonies have been performed, many 
striking incidents have taken place, within the walls of 
Santa Maria del Fiore, but never was the great church 
the theatre of a performance more impressive than that 
of this day, from the variety and the character of the 
historic and religious associations with which it ap- 
pealed to the imagination. The Emperor of the East 
stood there as the representative of the ancient world, 
a solitary and splendid figure, round which were gath- 
ered the mightiest traditions of the past ; the Pope was 
hardly less an image of the past, the symbol of that 
MedicEval Church which was giving way before the 
spirit of the modern world. 

The proper work of the Council failed. The union 
of the churches of the East and the West was a de- 
lusion. But the influence of the Council was neither 
transient nor local ; it was one of the chief agencies in 
the emancipation of the intelligence of Europe. The 
presence in Florence for many months of a number of 
learned and eminent men to whom the tongue of an- 
cient Greece was hardly a dead language quickened 
the long-since-awakened zeal of Florentine students to 
possess themselves of that "golden key which could 
unlock for them the treasures of antiquity." 



* Vespasiano's account of the ceremonies is in his Life of Eiigeniiis 
IV., §§ 13, 14. Gibbon gives a clear and animated narrative of the pro- 
ceedings of the Council, ch. Ixvi. 



STUDY OF GREEK AT FLORENCE. 289 

The eloquence of Bessarfon, the mystical discourses 
of the venerable Gemistos Plethon, indoctrinated their 
Florentine disciples with the divine teachings of their 
common master, Plato. It was a doctrine conformed to 
the inherited poetic and religious genius of Florence. 
The Platonic Academy was founded by Cosimo de' 
Medici, whose own nature was susceptible to the im- 
pression made by these teachers. The reverence for 
Plato led to the study and interpretation of Greek 
poetry and philosophy in general; and when, fifteen 
years later, Constantinople, the last refuge of Greek let- 
ters on their own ground, fell a conquest to the barbaric 
Turk, the enthusiasni thus awakened had happily not 
abated, and Italy was prepared to offer asylum to schol- 
ars who brought her the last remnants of ancient learn- 
ing, and to become the interpreter to Europe of the 
thought of Greece, and, by force of kindred genius, 
to revivify the Greek spirit in new forms of art. As 
Homer admitted Dante to his company of poets, so 
the architects of Athens would not have denied their 
brotherhood with Brunelleschi, nor would her painters 
have refused to Botticelli entrance to their band. 

In the year of the Council, little advance seems to 
have been made towards the completion of the Duomo. 
There was a falling-o£f in the funds at the disposal of 
the Board of Works. The salary of Brunelleschi and of 
other masters was reduced one half.* For three years 

* This was on the ground of an impost of two thousand florins laid 
on the opera by the magistracy called della Masserizia, or " of Frugal- 

19 



2 go FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

there is no record of work, and it was not till April, 
1445, that the Consuls of the Art of Wool, desirous 
that the lantern should be .built, and considering the 
extreme difficulty of raising stone and marble to the 
top of the dome and of supporting it there in sufficient 
quantity for the construction, by a fresh vote appointed 
" Philip, who said he could do the work, sole overseer for 
the term of his life," but " no longer," adds the cautious 
scribe — " pro tempore et termino duraturo eius vita du- 
rante et donee vixerit, et non ulterius" — at a salary once 
more of a hundred florins annually.* It is uncertain 
whether the work of actual construction was even 
then begun. The documents are silent; Baldinucci, 
without giving his authority, asserts that the first stone 
of the lantern was placed in 1445, and there is no evi- 
dence to contradict his assertion.! But the master 
was not to see his design completed, was not long even 
to direct its progress. 

" Finally," says Vasari, " Filippo, being now very old, 
that is, sixty-nine years old, in the year 1446, on the 
1 6th of April, went to a better life, afteir having toiled 
greatly in the performance of works which made him 
deserve on earth an honored name, and obtain in heav- 
en an abode of peace. His country felt infinite grief 
for him, and knew and esteemed him when he was 
dead far more than it had done while he was living. 

ity." The motive of this impost is not stated. Guasti, La Cupola, etc., 
Doc. 88, p. 46. 

* Guasti, La Ciipola, etc., Doc. 93, p. 48. 

t Baldinucci, Vita di Filippo Ser Brunellesco, Firenze, 181 2, p. 126. 



DEATH OF BRUNELLESCHI. 29 1 

A multitude of friends, artists, wept for him, and chiefly 
the poorer among them, to whom he had done good 
continually." 

His body was laid in the campanile, but in Febru- 
ary of the next year order was taken that it should be 
buried within the cathedral, and that the marble slab 
in the pavement above his grave should bear the words 
"FILIPPUS ARCHITECTOR." 

It was Brunelleschi's chief desire, says Vasari, to bring 
back to light good architecture, the good old orders, in 
place of the German and barbarous style which had 
been in vogue ; and he succeeded. The curves of his 
dome clasp the modern to the classic world. 

More than twenty years passed after Brunelleschi's 
death before the lantern was completed. On the 23d 
of April, 1467, the last and highest stone was set, and 
the Signory of the city and the Consuls of the Art of 
Wool mounted to the lantern, in order to be present 
at its consecration by the archbishop, with his chapter 
and all the canons and chaplains of the Church.* 

* Ricordo of Alamanno di Francesco, in Gualandi, Meitiorie di Belle 
Arti, ser. iv. 1845, p. 139. The date is generally given, it is so even by 
Guasti (p. 202), as 23d of April, 1461. This error is due to Baldinucci, 
who misdates a Ricordo which he cites. Vita di F Hippo di Ser Bricnel- 
lesco, p. 126, note. The Record itself should have saved him from the 
error, and led to its earlier correction, for it contains the name of the 
Gonfalonier present at the consecration of the lantern, Tommaso So- 
derini. Soderini was Gonfalonier in 1467. Compare Doc. 317 in Guasti, 
La Cupola, etc., p. 107, from the records of the opera, dated December 31, 
1466, in which are the words " seeing that the lantern is near its perfec- 
tion, so that in a short time it will be finished and complete." Milanesi 
repeats the error in his new edition of Vasari, Firenze, 1878, tomo ii. 
p. 364, note. 



2Q2 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER. 

With the completion of Brunelleschi's design, the 
interest of the history of St. Mary of the Flower as a 
work of religious faith, of civic pride, of artistic genius, 
comes to an end. Few cities possess a nobler or more 
characteristic monument of the great achievements of 
their people in the past. Few cities have nurtured a 
people so worthy of such a memorial as those of Flor- 
ence. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX I. 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUO MO OF SIENA. 

The following documents were obtained by me from 
the archives in Siena, in 1870. Some of them were 
published in an article in Von Zahn's Jahrbilcher fur 
Kunshvissenschaft, in May, 1872; but that excellent 
journal soon after ceased to appear, owing to the un- 
timely death of its accomplished editor, and as its 
numbers are accessible to few Eno-lish readers, I have 
thought it worth while to reprint those documents 
which appeared in it, and to add to them a few that 
have never been in print. 

The Padre Delia Valle, in his Lettere Sanest (1782), 
published a few documents relating to the Duomo. 
Others were printed by Von Rumohr in his still valu- 
able Italienische Forschungen (1827). These were re- 
published, with many printed for the first time, by 
Milanesi, in his Documenti per la Storia delT Arte Se- 
nese (1854), often referred to in the preceding pages. 

The first of the documents I print is an extract from 
the earliest existing " Statute " of the commune, con- 
cerning the duties of the Podesta in respect to the Du- 
omo, of which I have given an account on pp. 86-88. 



296 



APPENDIX. 



I. 

From Statuto Senese II., f. t. 

A.D. CIRCA 1260. 

(i.) Dejure operariorwn sancte marie. 
Et infra unum mensem a principio mei dominatus faciam jurare 
operarios opere sancte marie, quod omnes redditus qui ad manus eo- 
rum pervenerint pro ipso opere, vel eius occasione, reducent in manus 
trium legalium hominum de penitentia, quos dominus episcopus eligat, 
cum consulibus utriusque mercantie, et prioribus xxiiij'"' vel cum ma- 
iori parti eorum, qui teneantur esse cum domino episcopo ad ipsam 
electionem faciendam, de tribus in tribus mensibus, salvo quod possint 
inde facere consuetas expensas. Et illos tres cogam recipere super se 
omne debitum quod pro ipso opere debetur, si dominus episcopus volu- 
erit opus sancte marie et debitum sub sua protectione recipere, et dicti 
tres teneantur reddere rationem eorum in consilio campane et populi 
de tribus in tribus mensibus, et potestas teneatur facere reddi dictam 
rationem a dictis tribus ut dictum est. 

(2.) Dc eodcm. 
Et faciam consilium campane comunis per totum mensem januarii 
de providendo super mittendis hominibus qui revideant rationem red- 
dituum et expensarum operis sancte marie, et qualiter procedatur in 
dicto opere, et de habendo operario uno vel pluribus ; et quicquid con- 
silium, vel maior pars, dixerit ita faciam et observabo. 

(3.) Dejiire coriandcm. 
Et faciam jurare operarios sancte marie quod quando habebunt x 
libras super facto operis ipsas expendent in amanamento* et facto ope- 
ris, et illud admanamentum non preste[n]t alicui sine domini episcopi 
parabola et mea, et ab inde superius mutabitur in opere ad dictum do- 
mini episcopi et mei. 

(4.) De jure illorttni qui acqiiirwit pro opere sancte marie. 
Et faciam jurare illos qui acquirunt in civitate senarum pro opere 
sancte marie quod quicquid ad manus eorum sive ad eos pro ipso opere 
perveniet sine diminutione dabitur et reassignabitur in manus domino- 

* This is a Latinizing of the word " ammanimento," which means " prepara- 
tion," here used, perhaps, for the getting-together of tools and materials. Com- 
pare 

" Ma se le svergognate fosser certe 

Di quel che '1 ciel veloce loro ammana." 

Dante, Piirg. xxiii. 106-7. 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 297 

rum operis vel in manus illorum qui pro opere fuerint electi, et hoc fa- 
cere teneantur singulis edomadis semel, exceptis illis qui diebus pasqua- 
libus acquirunt in ecclesia maiori, et predicta juramenta fiant per to- 
tum mensem januarii. 

(5.) De reducejidis marnioribiis ad opus sancte marie. 
Et si contigerit quod rector et operarii maioris ecclesie rumpi mar- 
mora fecerint pro opere sancte marie, et ilia voluerint facere reduci ad 
illud opus, ilia marmora et portilia faciam deferri expensis comunis, vel 
per foretaneos nostre jurisdictionis, usque ad dictum opus, ad inquisi- 
tionem operariorum eiusdem opere vel dominorum fraternitatis. 

(6.) De magistris dandis operi sajicte marie. 
Et dabo vel dari faciam operi sancte marie x magistros expensis et 
pretio comunis senarum, a futuris kalendis januarii ad unum annum, 
diebus quibus erit laborandum ad inquisitionem dominorum ipsius ope- 
ris : et faciam jurare operarios quod ipsi facient jurare magistros labo- 
rare in dicto opere bona fide sine fraude sicuti in proprio suo labora- 
rent, et quod dicti operarii teneantur acciisare dictos magistros apud 
camerarium et iiij""" [provisores] comunis senarum si predicta non face- 
rent vel non observarent. 

(7.) Dejtire magistrorum opere sancte marie. 
Et predictos magistros jurare faciam assidue in dicto opere laborare 
tam in estate quemadmodum in yeme, et pro eodem pretio, et quod 
nulli alii adiuvabunt ad laborandum sine speciali licentia potestatis, et 
tunc pro facto comunis tamen, et hoc idem observetur de omnibus aliis 
qui in dicto opere fuerint conducti. 

(8.) De deliberando et ordinatido quomodo in dicto opere procedatiir. 

Et de mense januarii tenear ego potestas, et capitaneus teneatur, una 
cum consulibus utriusque mercanzie et prioribus xxiiij", deliberare et 
videre et ordinare super facto operis sancte marie quomodo et qualiter 
in dicto opere procedatur, et quot magistri in ipso opere debeant labo- 
rare, et quomodo laborent ibi assidue sine interpolatione alterius ope- 
ris, et super salario eorum, et utrum debeant dicti magistri retinere in 
gignoribus* vel non, et super operariis ibidem statuendis, et super acta- 
tionibus dicti operis, et super faciendo fieri sedilia sive gradus lapidis 
circum circa plateam episcopatus per magistros dicti operis, ut cum fit 
contio sive parlamentum gentes possint sedere et morari super ipsis 
gradibus ; et generaliter super omnibus et singulis supradictis, et eorum 
occasione, et super omnibus utilitatibus faciendis pro dicto opere sicut 

* "Gignore" = apprentice. See Statuti dcgli Orafi Sanest, of 1361, in Gaye, 
Cartcggio, tomo i. p. 8. / ' 



2q8 appendix. 

eis videbitur, et quicquid de predictis fecerint et statuerint sit ratum et 
firmum non obstante aliquo constituto. 

(9.) De inveniendo loco pro cappella construenda ad Jio7iorem dei et beate 
vtrginis. 
Et teneantur priores xxiiij'"' et camerarius et iiij"'' provisores comunis 
senarum et consules utriusque mercantie, si exinde fuerint requisiti 
a domino episcopo senensi, invenire et videre et ordinare locum unum 
in quo eis videretur magis conveniens pro construendo et faciendo fieri 
expensis operis sancte marie unam capellam ad honorem et reverentiam 
dei, et beate marie virginis, et illorum sanctorum in quorum solempni- 
tate dominus dedit senensibus victoriam de inimicis, cum oporteat cap- 
pellam sancti jacobi destrui pro ornatu episcopatus ; et in illo loco quern 
predicti ordines approbaverint et ordinaverint dicta cappella fiat ex- 
pensis operis sancte marie. 

(10.*) De revidendis ct aptiandis domibits que siDit circa operant sancte 
marie. 
Et per totum mensem februarii faciam consilium campane in quo 
proponam et consilium petam de facienda platea, et revidendis et emen- 
dis et aptiandis domibus et hedificiis que sunt circa operam sancte 
marie maioris ecclesie senensis ex parte posteriori, et quicquid exinde 
consilium vel maior pars dixerit ut eius expensis debeat fieri, ita fa- 
ciam ct complebo. 

(11.) De emenda domo filiorum dainelli. 
Cum per domum emptam a comuni senarum que fuit filiorum trojani 
platea que est post opus beate marie virginis, dicta platea non possit 
iam explanari ut homines et persone possint comode ingredi dictam 
ecclesiam, et sic expense ille sint ammisse et nullius valoris, statuimus 
et ordinamus quod domus filiorum dainelli de arbiola ematur a comu- 
ni senarum pro explananda et actanda platea ad hoc, ut facilius ingres- 
sus sit omnibus volentibus inde intrare dictam ecclesiam ; et dicta emp- 
tio fiat secundum extimationem trium bonorum hominum qui eligan- 
tur per camerarium et quatuor provisores comunis senarum ; et dicti 
tres sit unus de civitate veteri, et alius de valle sancti martini, et alius 
de terzerio camollie ; que domus destruantur et mittantur per totum 
mensem aprilis, et aptetur ita dicta platea quod homines et persone li- 
bere et facile possint intrare dictam ecclesiam; lateres vero ethedificia 
dictarum domorum vendantur pro comuni senarum et pretium eorum 
detur in emptionem dictarum domorum, et dicti tres jurent de novo 
bona fide sine fraude facere rectam et legalem extimationem dictarum 
domorum, et predicta fiant non obstante aliquo capitulo constitute 

* This and the following rubric have been cancelled by an ancient hand. 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 299 

(12.) De compellendis habentibiis bestias pro salmis reducere mar mora 
operis sajtcte marie. 
Et compellam omnes et singulos habentes bestias ad somam in civi- 
tate senarum bis in anno reducere vel reduci facere marmora operis 
sancte marie, et hoc faciam si dominus episcopus fecerit uni cuique 
eorum indulgentiam unius anni de iniuncta sibi penitentia pro una qua- 
que salma. 

(13.) Dejudice dando super cognoscendis legatis factis operi sancte marie 
et fratribus predicatoribus et minoribus et aliis locis religiosis. 
Et dabo seu delegabo operi sancte marie de senis et eius sindico vel 
procuratori unum judicem qui summatim et extra ordinem, sine so- 
lempnitate judiciorum, et sine libello et petitione, cognoscat de judiciis 
factis dicte opere, et ad solutionem compellat eos qui solvere debent 
vel debebunt. Et hec eadem observabo de relictis factis fratribus pre- 
dicatoribus et fratribus minoribus de senis, et monasterio sancti galga- 
ni, et dominabus de sancta petronilla, et de sancto prospero, et hospi- 
tali sancte marie et malagdis de terzole, de corpore sancto et heremitis 
et dominabus de sancto laurentio, et servis sancte marie, et administra- 
toribus et curatoribus pauperum civitatis senarum, et dominabus de 
sancto mamilliano, et aliis locis religiosis ; etiam quod supradictis om- 
nibus valeant dispositiones facte coram tribus testibus masculis puberi- 
bus sicut valerent pro civibus senensibus, et quod potestas vel consules 
placiti, seu iudex comunis, teneantur ad petitionem seu relationem ju- 
dicis positi super hoc exbamnire et exbamniri facere illos qui tenentur 
et debent dictis locis relicta et judicia et dare tenutas et possessiones 
ad voluntatem sindici predictorum locorum, sine alia pronuntiatione 
seu sententia lata a dicto judice, et quod teneatur dictus judex termi- 
nare questiones coram se ceptas de predictis infra mensem postquam 
cepte fuerint, nisi remaneret parabola conquerentis. 



The next document shows how the magistracy of 
Siena dealt with a town under the dominion of the 
commune that was refractory in the discharge of the 
service required of it for the opera. See text p. 98. 

II. 

A.D. 1262. 
Die sabbati xiij kalcndas iimii. 
Facto et congregato consilio xxiiij" in domo Mini Fieri ad sonum 



200 APPENDIX. 

campane grosse populi ad ritocchum, a nobili viro domino Gherardino 
de Piis, Dei et regia gratia Capitaneo populi et Comunis Senarum, ut 
moris est. In quo consilio lectis diligenter licteris infrascriptis que 
mictuntur illis de Monticiano, dicte lictere per dictum consilium fue- 
runt firmate, et sic mitti voluerunt et observate. Forma quarum licte- 
rarum talis est : — Gherardinus de Piis, Dei et regia gratia Capitaneus 
populi et Comunis Senarum, et ipsi Priores vigintiquatuor, providis 
viris Rectori, Camerario, Consilio et Comuni de Monticiano salutem et 
amorem sincerum. Recolimus vobis alia vice nostras licteras desti- 
nasse ut lignamina que expediunt operi sante Marie pro iusto et de- 
centi pretio Senas deferre deberetis, cumque mandatum nostrum transi- 
eritis surda aure grave ferimus et molestum ; quare vobis universis et 
singulis firmiter et districte precipiendo mandamus, ad penam et ban- 
num centum marcharum argenti Comuni vestro, et viginti quinque li- 
brarum denariorum senensium ab uno quoque vecturalium terre vestre 
auferendum; precipiendo mandamus quatenus lignamina dicta ubicum- 
que sunt pro dicto opere deferatis pretio condecenti, alioquin contra 
vos ad exbanniendum et condennandum acriter procedemus ; ita quod 
de vestra inobedientia nullum cognoscetis comodum reportare. Nos. 
autem faciemus vobis solvi de labore vestro pro ut iustum fuerit atque 
decens. 

Consiglio Gaicrale, tomo x. f. 35. 



Documents III. and IV. relate to the choice of the 
opcraio and of a committee of the works.* 

III. 

A.D. 1272. 

Anno Domini Millesimo cclxxij indictione xiiij die vij mensis maii. 
Appareat omnibus manifeste quod congregato generali Consilio Comu- 
nis Senarum in ecclesia Sancti Cristofori, more solito congregatum ad 

* The first operaio of whom I find mention was Frater Vernaccius, or Fra 
Vernaccio, of San Galgano, in the year 1257-8. (Perg. 221, in the series of the 
Opera Hldtrofolitana di Siena.) San Galgano was a monastery of the Cistercian 
order in the diocese of Volterra. It continued to supply operaii to the Duomo of 
Siena for almost half a century. Fra Vernaccio was succeeded in 1259-60 by 
Fra Melano (see text, p. 102), who remained at the head of the works for sixteen 
or seventeen years, during which the greater part of the old Duomo, so called, 
was erected. In 1277 the name of Fra Villa appears as that of the operaio (Perg. 
374). He was succeeded in 12S0 by Fra Magio, or Maso (Perg. 391) ; and he, in 
turn, in 1290, by Fra Giacomo [Libra delta Biccherna, Oct., 1290) ; and he, in 1292, 
by Fra Chiaro (Perg. 476) ; and he, in 1298, by Fra Fazio (Perg. 626)— all from the 
same monastery. To these Cistercians the old cathedral owes all that is best in 
its construction. 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUO MO OF SIENA. 30 1 

sonum campane et per bannum missum, dominus Orlandinus de Canos- 
sio, Dei et regia gratia Potestas Comunis Senensis, cum consilio, con- 
sensu, et expressa parabola et auctoritate domini Renaldi domini Re- 
naldini camerarii, et Bartolomei Crescenzi, domini Tomagii iudicis, 
Gonterii domini Palmerii, et domini Scotie de Talomeis, quatuor pro- 
visorum Comunis dicti, et consensu et auctoritate dicti Consilii, et eius- 
dem voluntate expressa, et ipsi iidem camerarius et quatuor provisores 
Comunis, et Consilium predictum fecerunt, constituerunt, creaverunt et 
ordinaverunt Fratrem Melanum, Monasterii Sancti Galgani ordinis 
Cestelli, licet absentem, factorem, ordinatorem et operarium opere seu 
operis Sancte Marie Maioris Ecclesie Senensis, ad facendum fieri, ope- 
rari, et compleri dictam operam et omnia que fuerint opportuna dicte 
opere. Et fecerunt, constituerunt et ordinaverunt ipsum sindicum, ac- 
torem, factorem, et procuratorem predicte opere, ad petendum et exi- 
gendum, recoUigendum et recipiendum, nomine dicte opere et pro ea, 
omne et quolibet debitum, legatum seu relictum ipse opere et eius causa 
a quacumque persona et loco ; et ad liberandum et absolvendum omnes 
et singulos debitores eiusdem ; et ad cedendum iura et ad facendum 
instrumenta et cartas seu apocas de soluto et de cessionibus iurium ; et 
ad transigendum, componendum finem, et refutationem facendum, et 
ad cipiendum mutuum pro dicta opera, et ad obligandum bona ipsius ; 
et ad vendendum bona prefate opere, et ad omnia et singula faciendum 
que cognoverit utilia expedire dicte opere. Et dederunt, concesserunt 
et mandaverunt eidem Fratri Melano generalem et liberam administra- 
tionem in predictis et circa predicta, et que verus et legictimus opera- 
rius et administrator et factor facere potest. Et promiserunt quod 
quicquid per eum factum fuerit ratum et firmum habere, et tenere, et 
contranon venire aliqua ratione, iure vel occasione, sub obligatione bo- 
norum dicti Comunis. 

Actum Senis in ecclesia Sancti Cristofori, coram Martino Guarrerii 
et Gilio coiario \lacund\ castaldis Comunis Senensis testibus pre- 
sentibus. 

Ego Bonaventura notarius, olim Bonaguide, nunc Comunis Sen., scri- 
ba, predictis interfui, et quod super legitur, mandate predicte Potestatis 
et Consilii, scripsi et publicavi. 

Ego Guido Rubeus quondam Jannis, index et notarius, que supra con- 
tinentur vidi et legi in instrumento autentico et illeso per dictum Bo- 
naventuram notarium publicato, et ea ex inde sumpsi, et nichilo addito 
vel dempto preter signum ipsius notarii, in hac pagina fideliter exem- 
plavi et scripsi, et una cum Bartolomeo Cerigi notario et dicto autenti- 
co diligenter legi et auscultavi ; et facta de predictis insinuatione dili- 
genti, Senis in ecclesia Sancti Cristofori, in anno Domini Millesimo 
ducentesimo septuagesimo secundo, indictione prima, die duodecimo 
kalendas octubris, in presentia domini Bonaguide iudicis filii quondam 



,02 APPENDIX. 

Gregorii Boccaccii, et Bonensegne quondam Ugolini, qui vocatur Bo- 
nensegna Unctus, consulum placiti Senarum, in ecclesia dicta, more so- 
lito, pro tribunali sedentium, et apud ipsos huic insinuationi auctorita- 
tem suam prestantes, coram Bernardo notario quondam Ranerii Torto- 
nis, Ugolino quondam Ranerii Guinisio, Diotisalvi vocato Nigli Ciolo 
quondam Provenzani, et Jacobino Benzi testibus presentibus de ipso- 
rum consulum mandato mihi facto, coram testibus eisdem loco et die 
proxime dictis, in publicam formam redegi et meum signum apposui. 
Opera JMetropolitana di Siena, 

IV. 

A.D. I2S0, 

Die lune xvj decembrts. 

In nomine Domini amen. — Factum est generale Consilium campane 
Comunis Senarum choadunatum ad sonum campane et per bannum mis- 
sum in palatio filiorum Jacobi de Platea posito in Galgaria, ab illustri 
et magnifico viro domino Matheo Rubeo de filiis Ursi, Dei gratia Po- 
testate Senarum, in quo proposuit et consilium petiit. Quod cum audi- 
veritis legi capitulum statuti quod loquitur : — et faciam Consilium Co- 
munis Senarum per totum mensem januarii de providendo ut ponantur 
iiij'"' homines inter quos sit unus ex consulibus mercatorum qui revi- 
deant rationem reddituum, proventuum et expensarum operis Sancte 
Marie et qualiter in dicto opere procedatur et de habendo operario uno 
vel pluribus. . . . 

Rustichettus Guidonis Jacobi consuluit et dixit, quod iiij""" qui debent 
eligi super providendo debito operis Sancte Marie eligantur per do- 
minum Potestatem et eius curiam et Quindecim secundum formam 
statuti Senarum, et quod per eos factum fuerit teneat et sit firmum. . . . 

Jacobus Sardus super providendo de debito operis Sancte Marie et 
super eligendis iiij" inter quos sit unus ex consulibus mercatorum con- 
suluit, quod eligantur secundum formam statuti, et quod ipsi idem electi 
habeant revidere rationem reddituum et proventuum dicti operis, et 
quod sit in eorum provisione de habendo uno operario tantum. . . . 

Dominus Bandinus judex, super facto operis consuluit, quod eligantur 
dicti iiij" secundum formam statuti, et per eos rationem redituum dili- 
genter debeat revideri. . . . 

Consilium super revidendo ratione redituum operis Sancte Marie 
fuit in Concordia cum dicto Rustichetti. 

Consiglio della Campana, tomo xxiv. f. 7. 



In regard to the following document, see the preced- 
ing text, p. 135, concerning the release of prisoners on 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 303 

the Feast of the Assumption, and the proposal to leave 
to Pier Pettignano the choice of captives to be freed.* 

V. 

A.D. 1282. 
Die niartis xj aiigusti. 

In Dei nomine amen. Factum est generale Consilium campane Comu- 
nis Senarum, Dominorum xv, Gubernatorum Comunis et populi Sena- 
rum, ad eorum requisitionem et petitionem, in palatio filiorum Talome- 
orum et filiorum Serre Jacobi de Platea, ad sonum campane et per ban- 
num missum publice per civitatem Senarum ut moris est, coadunatum 
a nobili et prudenti viro domino Oddo Altoviti de Florentia Judice, 
nunc in loco magnifici et illustris viri domini Guidonis Salvatici, Dei 
gratia in Tuscia Comitis Palatini, et nunc eadem gratia honorabilis 
Potestatis Senarum, facta prius de infrascriptis imposita de conscientia 
camerarii et iiij""" provisorum Comunis Senarum, apud palatium ipsius 
domini Comitis Potestatis, secundum formam statuti Senarum. In quo 
quidem CQnsilio proposuit et consilium petiit, quod cum dicatur quod 
sit consuetudo in civitate Senarum in festivitatibus beate Marie sem- 
per virginis de mense agusti, quod festum principaliter celebratur per 
Comune et homines civitatis Senarum ad reverentiam Jesu Christi et 
matris eius sanctissime ac beate Virginis Marie, et ad exaltationem 
Comunis et civitatis Senarum et eius districtus, relaxare aliquos ex 
carceratis Comunis Senarum, — si placet vobis quod aliqui ex carceratis 
Comunis Senarum in proxima festivitate beate ac gloriose Marie sem- 
per virginis huius mensis relaxentur et relaxari debeant per Comune 
Senarum, qui et quot, et per quos inveniantur illi qui debuerint relaxari 
de carceribus Comunis Senarum ; quid vobis videtur quod faciendum 
sit super predictis pro meliori et utiliori Comunis Senatum in dei no- 
mine consulatis. . . . 

Jacobus domini Renaldi Gilii consuluit et dixit, quod Pierus Pettina- 
rius hinc ad diem beate Marie Virginis debeat invenire x ex pregioni- 
bus Comunis Senarum pauperioribus quos invenire poterit et illi quos 
invenerit relaxentur. . . . 

Dominus Bartalomeus Seracini consuluit et dixit, quod relaxentur ex 

* Mr. Forsyth, who was in Siena at the festival of the Assumption in 1S02, wit- 
nessed the celebration of the Beatification of Pier Pettignano. He says, in his 
Remarks on Italy — a book still eminent among the many volumes of Italian travel 
— " The Pope had reserved for this great festival the Beatification of Peter, a Se- 
nese comb-maker, whom the Church had neglected to canonize till now. Poor 
Peter was honored with all the solemnity of musick, high-mass, an officiating car- 
dinal, a florid panegyrick, pictured angels bearing his tools to heaven, and comb- 
ing their own hair as they soared ; but he received five hundred years ago a 
greater honor than all, a verse of praise from Dante." 



204 APPENDIX. 

pregionibus pauperibus et pro minori culpa detentis, qui eligentur per 
guardianum minorum etfratrum predicatorum.etcum deliberatione do- 
minorum xv, sub ista condictione, quod non relaxentur aliqui ex prodito- 
ribus civitatis Senarum, vel qui dederint in prodictione auxilium vel fa- 
vorem, nee aliquis qui alia vice fuerit oblatus per Comune Senarum. . . . 

Johannes Provinus consuluit et dixit, quod de carceratis relaxentur 
usque xviij pro minori et leviori culpa, et ad inveniendum eos sit et 
esse debeat unus frater de predicatoribus et unus de minoribus quos eo- 
rum priores voluerint, et compagnus domini Episcopi, et Pietrus Pet- 
tinarius. ... 

Dominus Ricovarus judex consuluit et dixit, quod ad honorem Dei 
et beate Marie Virginis relaxentur usque x de pauperioribus pregioni- 
bus qui sunt in carceribus Comunis, exceptis de hoc numero proditori- 
bus et rebellibus et condempnatis pro maleficiis et pro robbariis strata- 
rum, et quod isti x eligantur et cernantur per [dominos] xv, et quod, in- 
ventis de xv, legantur in consilio generali eorum nomina et pronomina, 
et postea pro quolibet fiat scrutinium per palloctas ita quod quilibet 
qui habuerit plures palloctas quod debeat relassari relaxetur, et aliter 
non, et non vult quod relaxentur aliqui qui alias fuerint oblati. . . . 

Soczus domini Bandinelli consuluit et dixit, quod relaxentur xx de 
carceratis Comunis hoc modo, quod eligantur et cernantur per dominos 
XV et per ordines civitatis, inter quos vult quod sint homines Guelfi qui 
fuerint defensores pacifici status Comunis Senarum et officii domino- 
rum XV ; inter quos non vult quod possit esse aliquis proditor vel rebel- 
lis Comunis Senarum, nee aliquis alias relaxatus vel oblatus, nee aliquis 
de Licignano Aretii, sed de amicis et pauperioribus et pro levi culpa 
detentis, et excipit illos qui fuerint ad prelium in civitate Senarum con- 
tra Comune et populum Senarum, et illos qui steterint in turri ad fa- 
ciendam guerram, et quod postea dicti xx sic electi legantur in consilio 
campane. . . . 

Consilium fuit in concordia in predictis omnibus cum dicto Soczo 
domini Bandinelli. 

Consiglio dcUa Compana, tomo xxvi. f. 1 1. 



Donation by the Commune of eight hundred lire for 
the prosecution of the work on the Duomo. See text, 
p. 140. 

VI. 

A.D. 1290, 

Die 20 mensis octubris. 
In nomine Domini amen. Factum est generale Consilium campane 
Comunis Senarum, consulum militum, consulum mercatorum, consu- 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 305 

lum artis lane et dominorum artium, et L per terzerium, a magnifico et 
potenti milite domino Johanne domini Arcorimboni de Camerino, Dei 
gratia honorabili Potestate Senarum, facta primo imposita de infra- 
scriptis de conscientia et voluntate camerarii et quatuor provisorum 
Comunis Senarum, apud palatium dicti domini Potestatis secundum for- 
mam constituti senensis, congregatum in palatio Comunis Senarum, de 
mandato dicti domini Potestatis, ad sonum campane et per bannum 
missum ut moris est, — in quo proposuit et consilium petiit quod cum 
operarius operis beate Virginis Marie petat a Comuni Senarum certam 
quantitatem pecunie pro dicto opere et necessitate dicti operis, quam 
pecuniam dictus operarius non habet, et sine dicta pecunia in dicto 
opere procedi non possit, et laborerium jam inceptum non posset ad 
laudem effectui produci, et firmatum sit per dominos xviij, Guberna- 
tores et defensores Comunis et populi Senarum, facto partito ad scrup- 
tineum per palloctas secundum formam constituti, quod de pecunia et 
auro Comunis operario supradicto pro predicto opere et necessitate 
dicti operis donentur viij« libre denariorum senensium ad voluntatem 
dicti operarii, et postmodum sequente die sit similiter firmatum per 
ordines civitatis, silicet per dominos xviij et quattuor provisores comu- 
nis et consules militum et consules mercatorum, facto partito ad scrupti- 
neum et per palloctas secundum formam constituti, quod dicte viij'= li- 
bre denariorum donentur dicto operario pro dicto opere faciendo ad 
eius voluntatem et requisitionem, de pecunia et avere Comunis Senarum 
prout firmatum et stantiatum est per ordines supradictos, Unde si placet 
vobis quod dicta pecunia donetur ut dictum est in Dei nomine consulatis. 

Dominus Albertus Syndicus comunis senarum contradixit supradicte 
imposite secundum formam constituti senensis. 

Dominus Nerius judex consuluit et dixit, quod dicte viij'= libre dena- 
riorum ob honorem et reverentiam beate Marie semper Virginis de- 
fenditricis et gubernatricis Comunis et populi Senarum donentur de avere 
et pecunia Comunis Senarum dicto Operario pro dicto opere faciendo 
et ad laudem et effectum producendo, ad voluntatem et requisitionem 
dicti operarii, et quod camerarius et quattuor teneantur dictam quanti- 
tatem pecunie dicto operario dare, et quod debeant omnia contenta in 
imposita per dominos potestatem et dominos xviij et camerarium et 
quattuor ex comuni mandari. 

Consilium fuit in concordia cum dicto dicti domini Neri judicis, facto 
et misso partito secundum formam constituti et ad scruptineum, ipso 
scruptineo diligenter facto, quia in Bossolo del ^/fuerunt invente ccxviiij 
pallocte et in ilia del no xij pallocte per duas partes et plus. 

ConsigUo delta Campana, tomo xl. f. 50. 



The following document does not bear directly on 
20 



-q5 appendix. 

the story of the Duomo; but it affords such interesting 
illustration of the conditions of the times, and relates 
to a character so well known, that it deserves to be 
printed. Ghin di Tacco has received immortality from 
Dante and Boccaccio. Dante speaks of " le braccia 
fiere di Ghin di Tacco,"* and Boccaccio, in an excel- 
lent story of his dealings with the Abbot of Cligni, de- 
scribes him as " a man famous for his bold and insolent 
robberies, who, being banished from Siena, caused the 
town of Radicofani to rebel against the Church, and 
lived there while his gang robbed all who passed. t;liat 
way."t "This terrible Ghino di Tacco," says Mr. 
Longfellow, in his note on Dante's verse, " was a noble- 
man of Asinalunga, in the territory of Siena; one of 
those splendid fellows who, from some real or imagi- 
nary wrong done them, take to the mountains and 
highways to avenge themselves on society. He is the 
true type of the traditionary stage bandit, the magnan- 
imous melodramatic hero who utters such noble sen- 
timents and commits such atrocious deeds." 

VII. 

De castro constntdo per D. Ghinicm Tachi inter Asinam Longam ct 

Guardavalk. 

A.D. 1297. 

Die mercicrii iiij° dcceinbris. 

In nomine Domini amen. Ex precepto nobilis militis domini Acti de 
Corinatto Dei gratia honorabilis Potestatis Senarum, et nobilis militis 
domini Cervii de Bonatteriis de Bononia eadem gratia honorabilis Ca- 
pitanei Comunis et populi Senarum, generali consilio campane Comunis 
et populi supradicti, cum adiuncta quinquaginta per terzerium de rado- 
ta, in palatio dicti Comunis, ad sonum campane et vocem preconum 
more solito congregato, facta prius imposita de infrascriptis de conscien- 
tia et consensu domini camerarii et duorum ex quattuor provisoribus 

* Purgatorio, vi. 14. t Decamerotie, Nov. 92. 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA, ^q? 

dicti Comunis, apud palatium dicti Comunis, secundum formam statuti, 
prefati domini Potestas et Capitaneus proposuerunt in dicto consilio et 
consilium petierunt : — 

Quod cum ad audientiam dominorum Novem, gubernatorum et de- 
fensorum Comunis et populi Senarum, relatu pen^enerit plurimorum 
quod per dominum Ghinum Tachi inter Asinam longam et Guarda- 
valle construebatur quedam fortellitia seu castrum, et ipsi domini No- 
vem, volentes de hiis scire plenarie veritatem, ad dictum locum mise- 
runt aliquos bonos homines et legales per quos redacta fuerunt in 
scriptis ea que reperierunt de predictis, sicut legi audivistis in presenti 
consilio, super quibus dicti domini Novem per se ipsos nolunt aliquid 
providere, sed habito consilio et tractatu super predictis cum pluribus 
sapientibus et bonis hominibus civitatis extitit per eos concorditer sta- 
bilitum, quod hec omnia ad presens consilium ponerentur, et sicut super 
hiis placeret presenti consilio providere et ordinare ita fient et debent 
executioni mandari ; — Quid super hiis et circa ea pro bono et pacifico 
statu civitatis, comitatus et jurisdictionis Senarum, et ad evitandam om- 
nem materiam dubii, scandali et erroris sit agendum, in Dei nomine 
consulatis. 

Mens Ormanni super facto domini Ghini Tachi dixit et consuluit, 
quod per dominos Novem eligantur iiij" boni homines et legales per 
terzerium qui stare debeant in palatio Comunis Senarum et sentire et 
invenire novitatem que sit per dictum dominum Ghinum Tachi, et, ea 
inventa et scita, postea super dicto negotio provideant, ordinent et fa- 
ciant ea omnia que pro honore et statu Comunis Senarum viderint et 
cognoverint convenire, et quicquid ipsi in ipso et de ipso negotio provi- 
derint, ordinaverint et fecerint observetur et fiat et executioni mande- 
tur. . . . 

Jacobus domini Renaldi Gilii super facto domini Ghini Tachi dixit 
et consuluit, quod pro parte Comunis Senarum precipiatur hominibus 
de contrata ubi sit dicta fortillitia sive castrum, et illi seu illis qui fa- 
ciunt vel fieri faciunt dictum castrum, quod ipsi in dicto loco non fa- 
ciant nee fieri faciant aliquam fossam, carbonariam, murum castella- 
num, sive aliquam fortillitiam, et si predicti ab ipso precepto in antea 
facerent vel fieri facerent novitatem, quod dominus Potestas et Capita- 
neus et Novem qui nunc sunt, vel pro tempore fuerint, mictant ad partes 
illas masnadam Comunis, que masnada capiat personaliter quoscumque 
invenerit in loco predicto, et, ipsis captis, postea suspendantur per gulam 
ita quod moriantur ; et vult quod si ibi est facta aliqua novitas preter 
muros domorum et domos quod talis novitas usque funditus destrua- 
tur. . . . 

Tuccius Alexi super facto domini Ghini Tachi consuluit, quod pro 
parte Comunis Senarum per quemdam numptium dicti Comunis preci- 
piatur illi seu illis qui faciunt vel fieri faciunt novitatem predictam, 



3o8 



APPENDIX. 



quod in ipso loco non faciant amplius novitatem, et si a dicto precepto 
in antea aliquid novi fieret, quod talis novitas destruatur expensis illo- 
rum qui talem facerent vel fieri facerent novitatem, hoc salvo, quod si 
illi qui faciunt vel fieri faciunt ipsam novitatem voluerint comparere 
coram domino Potestate et domino Capitaneo et dominis Novem et ali- 
quid petierint ab eisdem, quod tunc fieri possit in eo loco id quod de 
ipsorum dominorum processerit voluntate et non ultra. 

Ser Jacobus Sardus dixit et consuluit super facto domini Ghini, quod 
super dicto negotio fiat scruptinium hoc modo, quicumque vult quod 
novitas facta et que fit per dominum Ghinum tollatur et destruatur et 
non procedatur ulterius in ipso facto mictat palloctam in pisside albo, 
et quicumque vult quod fiat ipsa novitas et fieri possit mittat palloctam 
in pisside nigro, et sicut tunc per palloctas obtentum fuerit ita fiat et 
executioni mandetur. 

Frederigus domini Renaldi de Tholomeis sup)er facto domini Ghini 
Tachi dixit et consuluit, quod dictum negotium totum remictit in domi- 
num Potestatem et Capitaneum Comunis Senarum, et quod super dicto 
facto, tam in faciendo destrui ipsam novitatem quam dimittendo esse, 
procedant et faciant quicquid eis pro honore et statu Comunis Senarum 
viderint et cognoverint convenire, et quicquid ipsi in predictis et circa 
ca providerint et ordinaverintobservetur et fiat et executioni mandetur. 

Rustichettus Guidi de Cortabrachis super facto domini Ghini Tachi 
dixit et consuluit, quod quidam numptius Comunis Senarum pro parte 
dicti Comunis mictatur ad locum ubi fit novitas supradicta, et per ipsum 
numptium precipiatur pro parte Comunis Senarum illi seu illis qui fa- 
ciunt vel fieri faciunt novitatem predictam, quod ipsam novitatem et 
quiquid factum est in loco predicto incontinenti destruant, et plus non 
faciant ullo modo, et si per eum vel eos qui faciunt vel fieri faciunt no- 
vitatem predictam dictum preceptum obserx'abitur et adimplebitur 
bene quidem ; alias domini Potestas et Capitaneus Comunis Senarum 
omnino procurent et faciant sic et taliter quod dictum preceptum in 
omnibus observetur et executioni mandetur. 

Gerius Montanini super facto domini Ghini Tachi consuluit et dixit, 
quod ipse erat in concordia cum dicto et arengamento Jacobi domini 
Renaldi salvo quod non placet ei, nee se concordat cum eo, quod pro- 
cedatur ad suspensionem hominum aliquorum. 

Dominus Arrigus judex sindicus dixit et consuluit, quod pro parte 
domini Potestatis Senarum moneatur dominus Ghinus Tachi quod cum 
dicta possessio ubi fit novitas supradicta sit Comunis Senarum, ipsam 
possessionem dimictat et ibi amplius non faciat aliquam novitatem, et 
hoc fiat si reperitur quod dicta possessio sit Comunis. 

Consilium fuit in concordia super facto domini Ghini Tachi cum 
dicto et arengamento Rustichetti Guidi de Cortabrachis. 

Consiglio dclla Campana, tomo lii. f. io6. 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA, -.qq 

I have, in a note on p. 154, spoken of the new com- 
pilation of the statutes of Siena in 1337, and given an 
extract from it ; but for the purpose of comparing the 
provisions concerning the Duomo with those of the 
statute of 1260, I print them here in full. 

VIII. 

A.D. 1337. 

In nomine Dei amen. Incipit prima distinctio constituti Comunis 
Senarum. 

Z?<? protectiojie et defensz'one maioris ecclesie beate Marie virginis, et 
episcopatus Sejiensis, et eoruin bonorum et inrumt, et quod in opere 
dicte ecclesie continuo sit units custos, et unus operariics et unus scrip- 
tor et sex consiliarii, et de ipsoricm officio. 

Maiore ecclesia episcopatus Senensis vacante pastore, teneatur Po- 
testas Comunis Senarum ad requisitionem capituli dicte ecclesie, de- 
fendere et conservari facere bona dicte ecclesie et episcopatus. Item 
ad custodiam operis et laborerii dicte ecclesie continue moretur unus 
custos qui habeat ab operario dicti operis expensas, et a Comuni Sena- 
rum quolibet mense pro suo salario soldos xx. Sitque continue ad 
dictum opus complendum unus operarius sciens legere et scribere qui 
habeat pro suo salario quolibet mense libras quinque denariorum ; et 
possit dare libere de vino dicti operis servientibus in dicto opere prout 
eidem videbitur pro melioramento ipsius operis. Sit etiam continue ad 
ipsum opus unus bonus scriptor qui habere debeat de bonis dicti operis 
pro quolibet mense pro sua mercede iiij"'' libras denariorum et non ul- 
tra. Et [sint] sex boni et legales viri, videlicet duo de quolibet terzerio 
civitatis Senarum, in consiliarios dicti operarii et operis ; quorum con- 
silio et provisione omnia et singula facienda in dicto opere dictus ope- 
rarius facere debeat. Et nullum novum opus dictus operarius vel ma- 
gistri in dicto opere existentes possint incipere, ordinare, facere aut 
fieri facere, vel aliquis eorum, sine expressa licentia dictorum consilia- 
riorum et capud-magistri, vel duarum partium ipsorum ad minus. Et 
si dicti operarius et magistri vel aliquis eorum contrafaceret in aliquo 
intelligatur omnes expensas et costum de suo proprio donasse, et eo 
casu dicti consiliarii denuntient vinculo juramenti contrafacentem ma- 
iori syndico Comunis Senarum, qui syndicus cogat contrafacientem 
ipsas expensas integras satisfacere et restituere dicto operi, et ad obser- 
vantiam omnium predictorum. Data dictis consiliariis bailia providendi 
in augmentando et fieri faciendo dictum opus, et de numero magistro- 
rum qui sint in dicto et pro dicto opere, et generaliter in omnibus spec- 



^lO APPENDIX. 

tantibus ad dictum opus, prout eis vel duabus paitibus ipsorum videbi- 
tur convenire ; et necessitate eisdem imposita revidendi bis in anno 
ad minus, videlicet quibuslibet sex mensibus, rationem totius introitus 
et expensarum dicti operis, ac et semel ad minus quolibet mense eorum 
officii in simul conveniendi ad tractandum ea que honori et utilitati 
ipsius operis crediderint convenire ; ipsorum quolibet qui negligens vel 
remissus fuerit in faciendo predicta condempnando in xxv libris de- 
nariorum pro qualibet vice per maiorem syndicum supradictum iuxta 
excusationem (sic) semper salva. Teneantur insuper consiliarii ante- 
dicti qualibet ebdomoda semel convenire simul cum dicto operario, 
vinculo juramenti, pro negotiis operis antedicti. Et omnis provisio que 
per dictos consiliarios vel duas partes eorum fiet de aliquo novo opere 
faciendo debeat registrari per scriptorem dicti operis in libro ipsius 
operis, ipso operario presente, et secundum sic dictam provisionem in 
ipso opere procedatur, et non aliter vel alio modo, sub dicta pena. Quo- 
libet ex dictis consiliarii[sJ vacant! a dicto officio ab exitu sui officii ad 
duos annos, \lacwid\ dictis et scriptore et sex consiliariis eligendis per do- 
minos duodecim gubernatores Comunis Senarum et Consules mercantie, 
quolibet anno, de mense julii et de mense decembris, de sex in sex men- 
ses, et prout eis videbitur. Quorum operarii et scriptoris officium nullam 
habeat vacationem. Et teneantur dicti scriptor et operarius et eorum 
quilibet per se ordinate scribere in quodam libro omnes introitus et 
proventus ipsius operis, et omnes expensas et exitus ipsius operis, et 
tempus, scilicet mensem et diem, et causas et a quibus proveniunt in- 
troitus et quibus fiunt expense. Et teneantur iiij" provisores Comunis 
ad requisitionem dicti operarii dare calcinam necessariam dicto operi. 
Possitque dictus operarius libere marmora, portilia, pretaria et lapidi- 
cinia fodere et fodi facere, reducere et reduci facere ad dictum opus ex- 
pensis Comunis Senarum, vel per comitatinos quo \laciind\ ad reductio- 
nem predictam, de quocumque loco vel possessione invito eo cuius esset 
locus vel possessio ilia vel jus eorum, dum modo dictus operarius det 
suum et consuetum drictum domino dicte possessionis seu loci vel jus 
habenti ; pena C. librarum denariorum applicanda Comuni Senarum imi- 
nenti, contrafacienti vel ut dictum est fieri predicta non permictenti ; 
et nichilominus cogendo permictere fodi et reduci dicta marmora 
et lapides ut dictum est. 

De electione operarii. 
Per dominos duodecim et consules mercantie civitatis Senarum eli- 
gantur tres boni viri de civitate predicta, qui tres sic electi scruptinen- 
tur in generali consilio campane Comunis Senarum. Et qui ex eis 
plures voces habuerit, sit operarius dicti operis, et duret predictum eius 
offitium per unum annum a die introitus sui officii computandum. Qui 
operarius nullam licentiam possit concedere alicui de extrahendo, vel 



DOCUMENTS RELA TING TO THE DUO MO OF SIENA. ^ 1 1 

consentire quod extrahatur aliquod lavorium de petra vel marmore de 
petraria dicti operis ullo modo. Cui operario magistri dicti operis, qui 
de cetero iverint unus vel plures pro aliquo salario ad aliquam divisio- 
nem faciendam, teneantur dare, et dictus operarius ab eis auferre tenea- 
tur, dimidiam partem pretii quod recipient pro dicta divisione in utili- 
tatem operis convertendam. Et teneatur operarius antedictus si ca- 
pomagister dicti operis inprehenderit aliquod opus alicuius singularis 
persone, et non steterit continue ad servitium operis, retinere pro rata de 
salario suo sicut aliis magistris, et faciat custodiri ita quod opus taglie 
non possit decipi, scribendo quemlibet diem et punctum in quo magis- 
tri aut manuales, vel aliquis eorum, stabunt extra dictam operam, et ex- 
computet pro rata temporis sicut consuetum est. 

De oblationibus faczendis in vzgtlza et festo glorzoszsszme beate Marie vir- 
ginis de inettse migusfi. 
Exceptis paupertate, hodio vel infirmitate detentis, omnes habitantes 
in civitatis Senarum burgis et subburgis majores annis xviij et a Ixx 
annis infra, videlicet quilibet cum hominibus sue contrate in qua habi- 
taret, teneantur ire in vigilia Sancte Marie virginis de mense augusti ad 
maiorem ecclesiam Senensem, de die et non de nocte, et cum ceris et 
non doppieris, pena centum solidorum denariorum portanti vel facienti 
portare doppierum, et ofiferre dictos ceros operi dicte ecclesie, et venire 
et stare in dicta vigilia in civitatem. Item quelibet comunitas comita- 
tus et jurisdictionis Senarum teneatur ofiferre, in die festivitatis beate 
predicte ad dictam ecclesiam, operi dicte ecclesie, tot libras cere in ceris 
in quot centinariis librarum denariorum comunitas est alibrata Comuni 
Senarum. Et de tribus partibus dicte cere fiat unus cerus fogliatus 
quam pulcrior, et de residuo tot ceri quorum quilibet sit unius libre 
cere quod fieri possunt deferendi et offerendi per tot massarios illius 
comunitatis quot sunt ceri supradicti. Comunitas vero alibrata in mi- 
nori quantitate C. librarum teneatur deferre et offerre tantum unum 
cerum unius libre. Et nullus possit sotiare deferentes dictos ceros 
comunitatis in dicta vigilia vel festo, pena C. soldorum denariorum, et 
medietas pene predicte sit cuiuslibet accusatoris. Liceat tamen Potes- 
tati de Monte Alcino, de Montepulciano, de Lucignano vallis Clane, vel 
eius filio, cum xx sotiis sotiare deferentes ceros dictarum comunitatum 
dicto tempore in eundo et redeundo ad dictam ecclesiam, dictis ceris 
foUiatis ponendis in altum in dicta ecclesia, et sic custodiendis per an- 
num, et in sequenti festo novis ceris ponendis et illis elevandis. 

Quod oblaia applicentur operis {sic) Sancte Marie. 
Omnesque ceri qui oflferuntur in dicta ecclesia in festo beati Bonifatii 
et beati Ansani, et pro censu Comunis Senarum quocumque tempore, 
ac etiam feudum dandum Comuni Senarum a comuni de Monte Alcino 



^ I 2 APPENDIX. 

quolibet anno xxx librarum denariorum, et etiam quicquid acquiritur 
in civitate Senarum pro dicto opere, excepto eo quod acquiritur in ec- 
clesia majori diebus pascalibus, sint operis dicte ecclesie. Omnibus ac- 
quirentibus pro dicto opere cogendis jurare per dominum Potestatem 
de mense januarii de assignando sine diminutione in manus dicti ope- 
rarii que ad eorum manus pervenerint. 

Statuti del Comune di Siena, tomo xxv (num. ant.), f. 7- 



See text, ante, p. 1 70. 

. IX. 

A.D. 1353. 

In nomine Domini amen. Anno sue salutifere incarnationis Mille- 
simo iii'^liij Indictione vj die veneris vij junii. Congregato et convo- 
cato generali consilio campane. . . . 

Item cum audiveritis legi ad intelligentiam in presenti consilio quan- 
dam petitionem of>erarii opere Sancte Marie infrascripte continentie 
et tenoris, videlicet : Dinanzi da voi Signori Nove, governatori e di- 
fensori del Comune e del Popolo de la Cita di Siena, e cum reverenzia, 
si dimanda per parte del operaio del uopera Sante Marie, cioe de la 
chiesa magiore de la Cita di Siena, che concio sia chosa che i Signori 
quatro provisori de la bichema del detto Comune non ano pagato gia 
sono cinque anni o piu al uopera Sancte Maria la limosina ordinaria 
la qual dovieno pagare per riformasgione di Consiglio di Campana del 
decto Comune, e sichome elli e molto manifesto la gloriosa Vergine 
Maria madre di Dio e suta, e e, e sara sempre, si a Dio piace, guida, 
g^arda, e defenditrice di questa Cita e del suo contado, e per tanto la 
detta magiore ghiesa del duomo Sante Marie, la quale e edificata e con- 
tinuo s'edifica a honore e a reverenzia della decta Vergine gloriosa, el 
Comune tucto, e ciascheuno singulare cittadino e tenuto di mantenere 
e da cresciere quanto allui e possibile ; e ancho concio sia chosa che 
la decta ghiesa non puo avere perfectione se non se prende col muro 
d'essa ghiesa parte del palazo del veschovado, e messer lo Veschovo di 
Siena a risposto al operaio sopradetto molto gratiosamente di volere 
in cio operare ogni chosa che sia honore e grandeza de la detta chiesa 
e piacere del Comune di Siena e de ciascheuno buono cittadino, adon- 
qua acio che la sopradetta ghiesa la detta perfectione possa avere a 
honore e a reverenzia de la detta Madre di Dio vergine gloriosa, — vi 
piaccia di fare reformare nei consigli channo balia, che Signori quactro 
provisori de la bicherna del Comune di Siena, ei quagli entraranno all' 
ofiitio in Kalende Lulglio proximo che viene, e successivamente cias- 
cheuno offitio di quattro de la detta bicherna, sia tenuto e debba, a la 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA, ^i, 

pena di cento fiorini d'oro per ciascheuno di loro, datollare per Misser 
lo Capitano de la guerra del detto Comuno, se nelle dette chose fossero 
negligenti, de la detta moneta e limosina, la quale dal detto Kalende 
luglio adirietro si doveva pagare a la detta uopera Sancte Marie e non 
e pagato, paghino e pagar debbano al operaio de la detta uopera Sancte 
Marie ; ricevendo pella detta uopera oltra la limosina usata e douta a 
la detta uopera pello tempo avenire ij'= fiorini d'oro, infine a tanto che 
la detta moneta e limosina chosi ritenuta sia compiuta di pagare. 
L'onipotente Dio e la detta sua gloriosa Madre vi conceda gratia di 
fare quello che sia loro santissima laude e reverentia, e sia honore e 
buono stato pacifico de la vostra Cita. 

Insuper cum audiveritis legi in present! consilio deliberationes habi- 
tas super dicta petitione, quarum talis est tenor, videlicet : Die v mensis 
junii lecta fuit presens petitio in presentia dominorum Novem, Potesta- 
tis, et Capitanei populi, et deliberatum fuit per eos quod presens petitio 
ponatur ad consilium ordinarii et executorum gabelle. Die vj mensis 
junii lecta fuit presens petitio in presentia dominorum Novem, ordi- 
narii et executorum gabelle, et deliberatum fuit per eos quod dicta pe- 
titio ponatur ad generale Consilium Campane. Si igitur videtur et 
placet dicto Consilio et consiliariis statuere, sancire, ordinare et re- 
formare prout in dicta petitione continetur, non obstantibus aliquibus 
statutis, ordinamentis, provisionibus et reformationibus Comunis Sena- 
rum, in Dei nomine consulatur. . . . 

Item simili modo et forma facto et misso distincte partito ad lupinos 
albos et nigros, secundum formam statuti, \Iacimd\ proposita operarii 
Sancte Marie et consilio dato super ea, fuit obtentum, statutum, sanci- 
tum et reformatum quod plene fiat prout in ipsa continetur per clxxviiij 
consiliarios eiusdem consilii dantes eorum lupinos albos del si, et se 
cum dicta proposita et consilio concordantes, non obstantibus xv con- 
siliariis dantibus eorum lupinos nigros del no, et se discordantibus a 
pr-edictis. 

Constglio delta Campana, tomo civ. f. 28. 



The two following documents relate to the means 
taken to secure the necessary supplies for the work 
towards the end of the fourteenth century. The first 
is an ordinance directing notaries called on to draw 
up a will that they should urge the testator to leave a 
legacy to the works. The last is an ordinance regu- 
lating the contributions of wax to be made annually by 



,14 APPENDIX. 

the citizens, and it affords curious and interesting in- 
formation concerning the occupations of the people, 
and the trades carried on in the city. 

X. 

A.D. 1388, marzo 28. 

In nomine Domini amen. Anno dominice incarnationis mccclxxxviij" 
Indictione xj^ die xxviij mensis martii. Convocato et congregato gene- 
rali Consilio campane Comunis et populi civitatis Senensis in consueto 
palatio, et magna sala palatii inferioris dicti Comunis, ad sonum Cam- 
pane vocemque preconis ut moris est, in sufficenti numero secundum 
formam statutorum Senensium, et cetera : Dixit et proposuit honora- 
bilis et sapiens vir Nannes Petri Johannini de numero Dominorum, de 
licentia et mandato Domini prepositi Dominorum prefatorum, in hac 
forma, videlicet ; — 

Laudabile apud Deum et honorabile apud homines certum est eccle- 
sias honorare, manutenere, pariter et augere. Testatur enim scriptura : 
honora Dciim de sitbsiaiitia tiia, quod recte fit cum domus eius et cul- 
tus divinus in illis honorantur ab hominibus, et manus illis extenditur 
elemosinas largiendo. Nulli quidem dubium est quod maior ecclesia 
cathedralis civitatis Senensis inter cetera civitatis prefate iocale pul- 
crum est et honorabile, cuius opera temporum malignitate in introiti- 
bus deficit, et sicut liquet in expensis quasi indeficientibus aggravatur. 
Unde non deberet preterire quin cives et comitatini Senenses in mortis 
articulo constituti aliquid relinquere deberent opere supradicte, quod 
contingere creditur quare homines non recordantur neque fiunt me- 
mores per alios circumstantes. Ne igitur bonum hoc per negligentiam 
hominum depereat, ad laudem omnipotentis Dei et matris sue glorio- 
sissime, et in remedium animarum omnium testatorum qui finem uni- 
verse carnis absolvunt, — si videtur et placet dicto consilio et consiliariis 
dicti consilii providere, ordinare et reformare, et quod provisum, ordi- 
natum et reformatum sit et esse intelligatur, auctoritate presentis '"on- 
silii, validaque et perpetua ac irrevocabili lege firmatum : Quod omnes 
et singuli notarii civitatis, comitatus et districtus Senarum vel aliunde 
rogantes in civitate, comitatu et districtu Senarum aliqua testamenta, 
debeant singulariter talem testatorem memorem facere et persuadere 
eidem si aliquid vult relinquere opere Sancte Marie de Senis secundum 
ipsius testatoris liberam voluntatem. Et ad hoc ut clare sciri et videri 
possit quod sic fecerint, teneantur dicti notarii in eorum scripturis et 
rogationibus talium testamentorum de predictis facere mentionem et 
singulare capitulum, in presentia testium vocandorum et adhibendorum. 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUO MO OF SIENA. 315 

in qua scriptura distinguatur utrum talis testator aliquid reliquerit 
dicte opere vel non reliquerit, pena decern librarum denariorum pro 
quolibet notario contrafacente, et qualibet vice ; applicandarum pro di- 
midia Comuni Senensi et pro alia dimidia dicte opere. In Dei nomine 
consulatur. 

Super quibus omnibus et singulis et cetera ; — 

Unus ex consiliariis dicti consilii in ipso consilio surgens ad dicito- 
rium consuetum dixit atque consuluit super dicta proposita quod sit, fiat 
et executioni mandetur pro ut et sicut in ipsa proposita continetur. 
In reformatione cuius consilii dato, facto et misso partito ad lupinos 
albos et nigros secundum formam statutorum Senensium, victum, ob- 
tentum et reformatum fuit quod sit, fiat et executioni mandetur pro ut 
et sicut in ipsa proposita continetur, per trecentos quatordecim consili- 
arios dicti consilii dantes ipsorum lupinos albos pro szc. Non obstanti- 
bus quadraginta nigris datis in contrarium predictorum. 

Ego Andreas, quondam Justi Cenni de Vulterris, publica, apostolica 
et imperiali auctoritatibus notarius, Cesareaque autoritate iudex ordi- 
narius, et nunc notarius Reformationum Comunis Senensis, predictis 
dum agerentur interfui, et ea rogatus scripsi et publicavi. 

Opera Metropolitana di Siena. 



XL 

A.D. 1389. 

In nomine Domini amen. Anno dominice incarnationis mccclxxxviiij 
Ind. xij die tertiadecima mensis aprilis. Convocato et congregato 
generali consilio campane Comunis et populi civitatis Senarum . . . 
dixit et proposuit honorabilis et sapiens vir Nannes Mini Neri de 
numero dominorum Priorum. . . . 

Cum in honorem et augumentum maioris ecclesie Senarum per non- 
nuUos prudentes cives Senarum data fuerit quedam petitio in hac for- 
ma, videlicet : Dinanzi a voi, magnifici signori, signori Priori, Governa- 
tori del Comune e Popolo de la citta di Siena, et a voi venerabili e carl 
cittadini del consiglo : con ogni reverentia debita si spone per alcuno 
vostro cittadino, quello che sia honore de I'onipotente Idio e della sua 
madre santissima, et accrescimento de la vostra chiesa maggiore, e sia 
honore de la vostra magnifica Signoria e di tutta la citta di Siena. 

Considerando che da uno tempo in qua I'entrata del huopara de la 
vostra chiesa maggiore e molto diminuita, e mancata, e ridocta a meno 
che per meta, e per questa cagione et inpotenza de la decta huopara, 
la sopradetta vostra chiesa maggiore non puo accrescere ne bonificare, 
ad honore de la gloriosa vergine Maria e come si richiederebbe a una 
si facta chiesa, e per questa impotentia non si puo riparare al campa- 



3i6 



APPENDIX. 



nile, che senza niuno rimedio e per cadere, e se non si guasta e per pe- 
ricolare tutta la sopradetta chiesa ; et accio che la delta chiesa vengha 
in quello bonificamento che voi desiderate senza danno dei cittadini, e 
proveduto in questa forma che disocto e scripto. 

Che tutti e cittadini di Siena et habitanti in essa citta e tutti quelli 
de le masse sieno tenuti e debbano ogn'anno fare o mandare una volta 
offerta a la sopradetta chiesa maggiore di quella quantita di cera et in 
quelli tempi et in quelli modi che qui di sotto sono scritti, non lassando 
pero ne diminuendo I'oflferta di madonna santa Maria del mese d'agosto. 

Et intendasi che la detta oflferta, avendo prima riparato overo rifacto 
el sopradetto campanile, sia deputata solo in accrescere la sopradetta 
chiesa maggiore, et maximamente in fare uno campo santo, cioe luogo 
di sipolture, in quella forma e modo che e quello di Pisa, el quale e 
delle nobili cose di cristenita che a chiesa s'apartenghano. El quale 
campo santo si faccia nel duomo nuovo, overo la dove para a I'operaio 
et a maestri che meglio stia. E questo facendo la vostra chiesa ne 
verra in grandissima magnificenza e buono stato et honore grandissimo 
di tutta la citta. 

In prima che tutti e gentigliomini e piaczesi da xiiij anni in su deb- 
bano portare et oflferire a la sopradetta chiesa maggiore ciaschuno uno 
cero d'una libbra o piu, e la detta offerta debano fare la mattina de la 
pasqua de la Resurressione del nostro Signore Geso Cristo proxima che 
verra anni domini mccclxxxviiij, e cosi debbano poi ogn'anno fare. Et 
che essi debbano andare a offerire in questo modo cioe : che ciascuno 
terzo vadano di per se raunandosi prima a una chiesa del decto terzo 
la quale alloro piaciera. 

Ancho che tutti e mercatanti et artefici di tutta la citta sieno tenuti 
e debbano, e i capomaestri e compagni, offerire ogn'anno uno cero d'una 
libbra o di piii per ciaschuno ; e tutti e factori o garzoni loro da xiiij anni 
in su debbano offerire ciaschuno uno cero di meza libbra o di piii, la 
quale offerta facciano ogn'anno a la sopradetta chiesa maggiore in 
quelli di e per quelle feste che qui di sotto sono dichiarate. 

Banchieri, orafi, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di \lacnnd\. 

Lanaiuoli, tiratori, tappetari, cardaiuoli, tintori, e tutti e loro sottoposti 
debbano offerire el di di Santo Jacomo e San Filippo, di primo di mag- 
gio. 

Ritaglieri, calzettai, e cimatori, e tutti loro sottoposti debbano offerire 
el di di San Barnabe apostolo, di xj di giugno. 

Mercatanti grossi, ferraiuoli, pizzicaiuoli, e loro sottoposti debbano of- 
ferire el di di San Giovanni Battista, di xxiiij di giugno. 

Setaiuoli, zendadai, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di di San 
Piero et San Pavolo apostoli, di xxviij di giugno. 

Dipentori e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di di Santo Jacomo e 
San Cristofano, a di xxv di luglo. 



DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUO MO OF SIENA. 317 

Maestri di legname e di pietra, e cavatori e manovali, e tutti e loro 
sottoposti debbano offerire el di di San Lorenzo, di x d'agosto. 

Calzolari, scarsellari, correggiari e borsari, e loro sottoposti debbano 
offerire el di di San Bartolomeo, di xxiiij d'agosto. 

Coiari, cerbolattari, cartari, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di di 
S. Giovanni Battista Dicollato, di xxviiij d'agosto. 

Fabbri grossi, chiavari, spadari, agutari, padellari, armaiuoli e sbraghi- 
eri, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di de la nativita di nostra Don- 
na, di viij di settembre 

Pannilini, ligrettieri, linaiuoli, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di 
\lacund\. 

Medici di fisica e cirusici, spetiali, barbieri, e loro sottoposti debbano 
offerire el di di Santo Luca, di xviij d'octobre. 

Giudici, avocati e notari e procuratori, e loro sottoposti debbano of- 
ferire el di di San Simone e Giuda, di xxviij d'octobre. 

Pellicciari, sartori, farsettari, bambagari, e loro sottoposti debbano of- 
ferire el di d'ogni santi, di prirao di novembre. 

Mercatanti di bestie, carnaiuoli, e pesciaiuoli, e loro sottoposti debbano 
offerire el di di Santa Caterina, di xxv di novembre. 

Fornieri, e panicuocoli, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di di 
Santo Andrea apostolo, di xxx di novembre. 

Barlectari, balestrieri, tornatori, fusari, e loro sottoposti debbano of- 
ferire el di di Santa Lucia, di xiij di decembre. 

Bastieri, sellari e tavolacciari, e tutti loro sottoposti debbano offrire 
el di di San Thome apostolo, di xxj di dicembre. 

Orciolari, pignattari, coppari, fornaciari di mattoni, e bichierai, e tutti 
loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di de la nativita di Cristo, di xxx di 
dicembre. 

Biadaiuoli, farinaiuoli, portatori, tractori, crivellari, e loro sottoposti 
debbano offerire el di de la circumcisione de nostro Signore Geso Cristo, 
di primo di gennaio. 

Maliscalchi, cozoni, e chi presta ronzini debbano offerire el di della 
pasqua di Befania, di vj di gennaio. 

Albergatori, tavernieri, pollaiuoli, soffrittai debbano offerire el di di 
sancto Anthonio, a di xvij di gennaio. 

Ancho che quelli de la compagna di Munistero perche non sono arte- 
fici debbano offerire ogni capo fameglia de la detta compagna uno cero 
d'una lira o di piii ogn'anno el di de la festa di Santa Maria candelora, 
di ij di ferraio, e vadano tutti in sieme. 

Ancho che tutte e tre le masse de la citta debbano offerire per ciascu- 
no terzo cento ceri di lira I'uno o piu a la detta chiesa el di di santo 
Mathia apostolo, a di xxiiij di ferraio. 

Ancho perche Parte de pizicaiuoli bonifichara che la detta arte deb- 
bano agiognare a la loro offerta uno cero grosso fiorito di peso di xxv 



3i8 



APPENDIX. 



lire con sei lire di fiori, e quattro doppieri con istaggiuoli di peso di xx 
lire o di piii in tutto. 

E sia tenuto ciascuno cittadino di Siena e de le masse e habitante in 
essa citta la sopra delta offerta ogn'anno fare o facci fare ne detti di 
diputati a la pena di x lib. per ciascuno e per ciascuna volta, a pagare 
in biccherna chi contrafacesse. 

E tutti e Rectori e Camarlenghi de le dette arti sieno tenuti le sopra- 
dette ofiferte ne sopradetti di fare e facciano fare ogn'anno a la pena 
di XXV lire per ciaschuno e per ciaschuna volta che contrafacesse, a 
pagare in biccherna. E ch'el Podesta sia tenuto le sopradette pene 
fare pagare a la pena di cento fiorini. E ch'el Camarlingho sia tenuto 
ritenere delsuo salario. E ch'el detto misser Podesta abbi la quarta 
parte de le sopradette pene le quali facesse pagare, a chi contrafacesse. 

Si igitur dicto consilio et consiliariis dicti.consilii videtur et placet 
providere, ordinare et reformare, et quod provisum, ordinatum et refor- 
matum sitet esse intelligatur, auctoritate presentis consilii, prout et si- 
cut in dicta proposita cdntinetur, non obstantibus in predictis vel ali- 
quo predictorum aliquibus statutis, reformationibiis, provisionibus et 
ordinamentis Comunis Senarum in contrarium disponentibus, in Dei 
nomine consulatur. 

In reformatione quorum consiliorum, dato, facto, et misso partito ad 
lupinps albos et nigros secundum formam statutoriJm . . . proposita 
oiTcrte obtenta fuit per cccj lupinos albos, non obstantibus Ixxxviij 
pigris. 

Consiglio dclla Campana, tomo cci. f. io6. 



APPENDIX II. 



IRREGULARITIES OF CONSTRUCTION IN ITALIAN 
BUILDINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 

In his Seven Lamps of ArchitectMre, published in 
1849, Mr. Ruskin, speaking of the Romanesque and 
early Gothic, says that in buildings of these styles " ac- 
cidental carelessnesses of measurement or of execution 
are mingled undistinguishably with the purposed, de- 
partures from symmetrical regularity, and the luxuri- 
ousness of perpetually variable fancy, which are emi- 
nently characteristic of both styles. How great, how 
frequent they are, and how brightly the severity of ar- 
chitectural law is relieved by their grace and sudden- 
ness, has not, I think, been enough observed ; still less 
the unequal measurements of even important features 
professing to be absolutely symmetrical." He proceeds 
to illustrate the fact of purposed departures from sym- 
metrical regularity by -the subtle arrangement of the 
seven arched compartments of the base of the western 
front of the Cathedral of Pisa, and by the exquisite del- 
icacies of change in the proportions and dimensions of 
the apparently symmetrical superimposed arcades of 
the same front, and also by the " determined variation 
in arrangement which is exactly like the related pro- 



^2o APPENDIX. 

portions and provisions in the structure of organic 
form" in the Romanesque Church of San Giovanni 
EvangeKsta at Pistoia, and in the west front of St. 
Mark's at Venice. " I imagine," he concludes, " I have 
given instances enough, though I could multiply them 
indefinitely, to prove that these variations are not mere 
blunders, nor carelessnesses, but the result of a fixed 
scorn, if not dislike, of accuracy in measurements, and, 
in most cases, I believe, of a determined resolution to 
u'ork out an effective symmetry by variations as subtle 
as those of Nature." * 

In the second volume of his Stones of Venice, pub- 
lished in 1853, he illustrates the subject still further by 
instances of " the peculiar subtlety of the early Vene- 
tian perception for ratios of magnitude," and of " an in- 
tense perception of harmony in the relation of quan- 
tities on the part of the Byzantine architects," drawn 
from the church at Murano, from some of the Byzan- 
tine palaces in Venice, and again from the Church of 
St. Mark.t 

The subject, although of especial interest as illus- 
trating the methods of building of the mediaeval archi- 
tects, and as exhibitinor the refined artistic feeling^ and 
delicate perception which were the source of the finest 
effects of beauty in their work, has not received the at- 
tention which it deserves. Few of the writers on the 
architecture of the Middle Ages refer to it. Burck- 
hardt, in his Cicerone, attributes the irregularities in 
symmetry to " an indifference to mathematical exact- 
ness peculiar to the early Middle Ages," \ which seems 

* The Seven Lamps of Architecture (London, 1849), pp. 144-153. 

+ The Stones of Venice (London, 1851-53), vol. ii. pp. 37-43, and 1 21-128. 

\Der Cicerone (2d edition, Leipzig, 1869), p. 102. 



ITALIAN BUILDINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 32 1 

to exclude the idea of a guiding aesthetic sentiment 
and an exquisite aesthetic result. 

In an interesting paper that appeared in Scribners 
Monthly, New York, August, 1874, entitled A Lost Art, 
Mr. W. H. Goodyear has made the most important con- 
tribution to the topic since Mr. Ruskin wrote. From 
an ingenious examination of the group of cathedral 
buildings at Pisa, the Duomo itself, the Baptistery, and 
the Leaning Tower — those buildings which Forsyth 
well calls " fortunate both in their society and their soli- 
tude" — he comes to the conclusion that the various 
curves and inclinations visible in them, the noticeable 
deviations from exact symmetry in generally corre- 
spondent parts, and the many irregularities of construc- 
tion which they present were " intended to produce op- 
tical effects, perspective illusions," for the purpose, in 
part, at least, of the apparent increase of dimensions ; 
and he advances the theory that the science upon which 
the builders proceeded was a tradition handed down 
from the ancient Greeks through the Byzantines to the 
Byzantine architects of Italy. The evidence of inten- 
tion in many of the irregularities is ample ; the motive 
suggested for them by Mr. Goodyear, and his theory 
of derivation, seem to me questionable. There are 
similar divergences from symmetry, and similar de- 
signed irregularities, in buildings in regions where the 
influence of Byzantine modes of construction was never 
strongly felt. 

The whole matter demands thorouo^h investioation, 
based upon numerous and careful measurements of 
buildings in all parts of Italy. It presents curious 
problems, the solution of which deserves the labor and 
time it may require. 

21 



22 2 APPENDIX. 

I am inclined to believe that while many of the ir- 
regularities which give so peculiar an aspect and often 
so great a charm of life and variety to the architecture 
of Italy in the early Middle Ages are due to the artistic 
sense of the builders (as, indeed, it seems to me, Mr. Rus- 
kin has proved), others are due to the sinking of foun- 
dations and to carelessness in construction, such as we 
have evidence of in the erection of the cathedral at 
Siena ; still others to the irregular supply of material, as 
well as to the variety of material brought from ancient 
buildings and worked into the new, as was frequently 
the case, for instance, in St. Mark's (see ante, p. 56); 
and others still to a change of design on the part of 
successive builders in w^orks which, like the cathedrals 
of Siena and Florence, were labors continued through 
many generations. 

We should have, then, to make two great distinc- 
tions — first, of the originally designed artistic irregu- 
larities, productive often of effects of great beauty and 
baffling intricacy, the result of fine architectural skill 
and feeling ; and, second, of originally undesigned ir- 
regularities, often injurious to the character of the edi- 
fice, and displeasing to the eye, the result of accident, 
wilfulness, incompetence, or change of plan. The his- 
tory of the building of the Duomo of Siena affords, as 
the preceding pages show, many illustrations of the 
operation of the latter set of causes of irregularity. 



INDEX 



INDEX. 



Aachen, church at, 5. 

Abati, Neri, sets fire to Florence, 202. 

Agnolo di Tura, extract from his chron- 
icle concerning plague at Siena, 166. 

Albert!, Leon Battista, returns to Flor- 
ence from banishment, 279 ; dedica- 
tion of his treatise on Painting to 
Brunelleschi, ib. 

Alexander III., Pope, strife with Fred- 
eric Barbarossa, 66 ; legend concern- 
ing, 67. 

Architects, Italian, their sense of value 
of proportion, 162. 

Architectural design in Italy during the 
eleventh century, 25. 

Architecture, from the eleventh to thir- 
teenth century, the clearest expression 
of the distinction between modern and 
ancient civilization, 10. 

history of, during the Dark Ages 

analogous to that of language, 12. 

the year 1000 marks the revival 



of, 13. 



influence of the Church upon, 13. 

Romanesque style of, 22. 

methods of construction in me- 
diaeval, 24, 
evolution of Gothic, from the 



Romanesque, 27. 

color in, a special gift of the Ve- 
netians, 56. 

character of Gothic, in Tuscany, 

92, 136. 

dome of Brunelleschi marks an 



epoch in, 250. 

the dome the most appropriate 



form in, for a political symbol, 250. 

Arnolfo di Cambio intrusted with the 
work upon the Duomo of Florence, 
192; his recompense, 194; death of 
(1310), 199; his works in Florence, 
ib. 

Art, loss of the sense of the worth of an- 
cient, 4. 

classic, influence of, upon artists 



of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies, 241. 

Arts, eff"orts of Charlemagne to restore 
life and order to the, 5. 

date of the reawakening of the, 1 1. 

practice of the, during the J\lid- 

dle Ages by laymen, 26. 

field of the, not limited to the 

Church during the Middle Ages, 30. 

united in the church edifice, 31. 

change in character of the, 156. 



B. 

Battista d' Antonio, chosen to oversee 
construction of dome in Florence, 251. 

Beauty, mediseval ideal of, 28. 

Becca'fumi, Domenico, his pavement of 
Duomo at Siena, 176. 

Bocca degli Abati, his treachery, 119. 
See Dante. 

Boniface VIII., Pope, commissions 
Charles of Valois to restore peace in 
Florence, 196. 

Brigata spendereccia, 157. ?>tt. Danfe. 

Brunelleschi, Filippo, competes for the 
making of the bronze door of the Bap- 
tistery of Florence, 237 ; fails, 238 ; 
his biographers, ib., note ; leaves Flor- 
ence for Rome, 239 ; gains a living as 
goldsmith, 242 ; studies in Rome, 
243 ; his repute increases, ib. ; com- 
petitor for the dome of the Duomo, 
246 ; asks aid from Donatello, ib. ; 
assisted by Nanni d' Antonio di Bi- 
anchi, 247'; his model for the dome, 
ib. ; a committee appointed by the 
Art of Wool to judge the model, 248 ; 
description of model by, ib. ; chosen 
to oversee construction of dome, 251 ; 
advice to the Board of Works, 255 ; 
dilficulties, 257 ; story of the egg, 25S ; 
building of the dome assigned to, 259 ; 
opposition to, ib. ; Ghiberti and Bat- 
tista d' Antonio appointed assistants, 
260; grief and anger of, ib. ; rivalry 
with Ghiberti, 261 ; preparations for 
building the dome, 262 ; determination 



326 



INDEX. 



to rid himself of Ghiberti, 264; salary 
increased, 266 ; his report to Board 
of Works, 267 ; his failure before 
Lucca, 270 ; his model of lantern, 
282 ; his design adopted, 284 ; ap- 
pointed overseer for life, 290; his 
death, ib. 



Cacciaguida, his picture of the condition 
of Florence, 156. Ute. Dci7ite. 

Campanile of Florence, 222. See Flor- 
ence. 

Capelletto, Company del, ravages of, 
174; defeat of, 175. 

Carroccio, description of, no, note; 
masts of, in Duomo of Siena, 123 ; at 
Florence under charge of the Art of 
Calimala, 217. 

Castracani, Castruccio, his character and 
career, 205 ; his war with Florence, 
205-208 ; death of, 207. 

Cathedrals of Mainz, Speier, and Worms, 
monuments of the eleventh century, 
20. 

Cecco d' Ascoli, burning of, 206. 

Charlemagne, his influence, and services 
to civilization, 5. 

Charles of Valois enters Florence, 196. 

Christianity, influence of, in uniting dif- 
ferent nationalities, 6. 

Church, universal obedience claimed by 
the, 7 ; her discipline and observances 
as elements of unity, ib. 

ideal of the, in the Middle Ages, 

14 ; her doctrines. il>. ; the popular in- 
stitution of the Middle Ages, 15. 

position of the, in Italy during 



the eleventh century, 20. 
condition of the, in the fifteenth 

century, 236. 
Church-building, general zeal for, at the 

close of the tenth century, 16. 
testimony of Rudolphus Glaber 

concerning, 19. 
interest of the secular clergy in, 

during the eleventh century, 19. 
zeal for, in Germany during first 

half of the eleventh century, 19 ; in 

Italy during the eleventh and twelfth 

centuries, 21. 

civic records afford material for 



history of, 30. 

comparatively little information 

concerning, of the Middle Ages, 32. 

want of sympathy in, of the poets 

of the Middle Ages, 32. 

notable exceptions to the gen- 
eral lack of information concerning, 
during the Middle Ages, 34, 



Churches, great number of monastic, 
built in the eleventh century, 17. 

essential likeness in the style of, 

throughout Europe during the elev- 
enth and twelfth centuries, 22. 

Civilization in Western Europe, wreck 
of ancient, after fall of Roman Em- 
pire, 3. 

traditions of old, preserved in 

Italy after fall of Roman Empire, 4. 

Clement VII., Pope, towers of Florence 
thrown down by order of, 202. 

Cologne, Cathedral of, reference to, in 
romance of Renaut de Montauban, 33. 

Commerce a source of unity, 9. 

Compagni, Dino, chronicle of, 195 ; its 
authenticity doubted, ib., note. 

Constantinople, Villehardouin's Chron- 
icle of the conquest of, 73. 
pillage of, 82. 



Construction, irregularities in, 125, 319. 

Corruption of Italy in fourteenth cen- 
tury, 164-5. 

Crusade, urged by Innocent III., 71. 

envoys sent from France to Italy 

to make arrangements for the, 72. 

reception of envoys by the Doge 

of Venice, 73. 

answer of the Doge to the en- 



voys, 74. 

acceptance by the envoys of the 

conditions made by the Doge, 75. 

assembly in St. Mark's with re- 
gard to, 76. 

consent of the people to join the, 

77- 



departure of crusaders from 
France, May and June, 1202, 78. 

fleet prepared by Venice for the. 



79- 



discord among those who had 
joined the, 79. 

failure on the part of the crusad- 
ers to make the promised payments 
to Venice, 79. 

resolution of the Doge of Venice 

not to abandon the, 80. 

want of success of the, 81. 

Culture, Italian, desire of communities 
and individuals for monumental build- 
ings, a marked feature of, 188, note. 

D. 

Dandolo, Andrea, chronicle of, 46. 
Dandolo, Enrico, elected Doge 1 192, 71 ; 

reception of French envoys by, 73 ; 

part taken by, in crusade, 74 ; council 

of, 75 ; speech of, in St. Mark's, 77 ; 

takes the cross, 80; blindness of, 81. 
Dante, prior of Florence, 194; sent as 



INDEX. 



Z^l 



envoy to Boniface VIII., 197 ; con- 
demned to death, 198 ; answer to his 
sentence, ib. ; conditions attached to 
pardon offered to, 215, note. 
Dante's Divine Comedy, passages illus- 
trated of: 

Inferno, x. 36, Farinata degli Uberti, 
106. 
" X. 86, the Arbia, III. 
•' xxix. 122, mnte vatia of Siena, 

88. 
" xxix. 130, la brigata spejtderec- 

cia, 157. 
" XXX. 78, Fonte Branda, 89. 
" xxxii. 81, Montaperti, 121. 
" xxxii. 106, Bocca degli Abati, 
119. 
Purgatorio, vi. 14, Ghin di Tacco, 306. 
" vi. 139-47, Florentine fic- 

kleness, 208. 
" xi. 121, Provenzan Salvani, 

112. 
" xi.i34,Campodi Siena, 89. 

" xiii. 153, la Diana, 88. 

" XX. 71, Charles of Valois, 

196. 
Paradise, xv. 99, Florence in the time 
of Cacciaguida, 156. 
" xv. 134, xvi. 25, Church of 
St. John Baptist at Flor- 
ence, 212. 
" XXV. 1-9, Dante's answer to 
the sentence condemn- 
ing him to death, 198. 
Diocletian, palace of, at Spalato, 21, 23. 
Documents relating to Duomo of Siena, 

App. I. 295-318. 
Doge, the election of a, 63. 

admonition of Venice to the, on 

his election, 59, 64. 
Donatello, genius and works of, 246. 

St. George by, 249, note. 

employed on palace of Cosimo 

de' Medici, 278. 
Duccio di Boninsegna, his character as 
a painter, 140; his altar-piece in Duo- 
mo of Siena, 142-6. 



Eugenius IV., Pope, flies to Florence, 
272; consecrates the Duomo, 273; 
knights Giuliano Davaiizati, 275 ; 
at the Council of Florence, 2S7. 

F. 

Faliero, Vitale, Doge, inscription on the 

tomb of, 65. 
Farinata degli Uberti at Siena, 106. See 

Dante. 
Festival of the espousals of the sea by 



Venice, date of origin of, 70 ; legend 
concerning the, ib. 
Florence at the close of the thirteenth 
century, 181. 

arts of, 183 ; statute of the Art 



of Calimala, 184, 213, 219; influence 
of, in public affairs, 186; activity of 
the, 187 ; various trusts committed to 
the, 211 ; officers appointed by the 
Art of Calimala to oversee the work 
on Duomo, 216; their duties, 217; 
measures taken to prevent interference 
by the clergy, 217. 

aspect of, in the fourteenth cen- 



tury, 200. 

Baptistery of, gilded bronze doors 

of the, 236 ; competition for the doors 
of, 237 ; the door awarded to Ghiber- 
ti, 238. 

Boniface VIIT., Pope, commis- 
sions Charles of Valois to restore 
peace to, 196. 

Campanile of, 222. 

carroccio of, 217. 

Charles of Valois enters (1301), 



196. 

civil discord in, 194. 

commercial morality of, 185. 

Council of, 287 ; failure of, 288. 

Dante, prior of, 194. 

decline in character of the peo- 
ple of, 285. 

Duomo of (Sta. Maria del Fio- 

re), appropriations made for repair- 
ing, and the renewal of Sta. Reparata, 
188; decree for rebuilding Sta. Repa- 
rata, 189 ; new structure determined 
upon, ib. ; foundation of St. Mary of 
the Flower, 190; measures for pro- 
curing means to build the, 191 ; Ar- 
nolfo di Canibio intrusted with the 
work upon the, 192 ; Gothic forms 
employed, 193 ; work upon, continued 
in spite of civic disturbances, 197; 
work upon, brought almost to an end 
by troubles in Florence, 203 ; super- 
intendents of the work petition for 
funds, 204 ; the Art of Wool intrusted 
with the renewed work upon, 211 ; of- 
ferings made on the Feast of St. John, 
214; various sources of income for 
building, 215; release of prisoners 
upon St. John's Day, ib. ; Giotto ap- 
pointed master of the works of, 230 ; 
new design for, 225 ; Francesco Ta- 
lenti master of the works of the, 226 ; 
new design begun, ib. ; character of 
new design, 227-30; progress of work 
upon, 23 1 ; tribune of, completed, 233 ; 
picture of, in Spanish chapel of Sta. 



328 



INDEX. 



Maria Novella, 234; project for a 
dome, 235 ; difficulties in constructing 
a dome, 244 ; proclamation ordering 
designs for a dome, 245 ; meeting of 
foreign artists to give their opinion, 
256 ; progress of dome, 267 ; incidents 
during the building, 268 ; strike among 
the workmen, 271 ; closing of dome, 
271 ; consecration of the, 273 ; bene- 
diction of the dome, 279; competition 
for lantern of dome, 281 ; report on 
models for lantern, 282 ; lantern of 
Brunei leschi accepted, ib. ; delay in 
completion of dome, 289 ; lantern com- 
pleted, 291. 

Florence, famine in, 209 ; efforts to re- 
lieve suffering caused by, ib. 

feuds of, picture of, by Cacciagui- 

da, 195. 

conflagration in, 202. 

Greek studies in, 289. 

luxury in, 2IO. 

men of eminence in, at the be- 



ginning of the fifteenth century, 252. 
(Jrdinances of Justice, 182. 



Plague of 134 



recovery 



from, 224 ; loss of records and docu- 
ments due to, 224, note. 

Podcsta and magistrates of, 184. 

reforms frequent in the govern- 



ment of, 208. 
St. John the Baptist, patron of, 

212 ; Feast of, 214. 
Santa Reparata, appropriations 

made for, 188; decree for rebuilding, 

189. 
towers of, thrown down by order 

of Clement VII., 202. 

walls and towers of, 201. 

war with Castruccio Castracani 



(1320), 205 ; disastrous eff'ect of, 205. 

war with Filippo Maria Visconti 

of Milan (1423), 269. 

Florentines, high qualities of the, 251 ; 
their critical spirit, 253. 

Foulques of Neuillypreaches the crusade 
of Innocent III., 72. 

Fra Angelico, frescos in Convent of St. 
Mark by, 277. 

Fra Melano, operaio of Duomo at Siena, 
102 ; his contract for pulpit with Nic- 
cola Pisano, 128. 

Frederic II., effect of his death on Ital- 
ian parties, 105. 

Frederic Barbarossa, reconciliation of, 
with Pope Alexander III., 66; signif- 
icance of their meeting, 67 ; legend 
concerning it, ib. ; paintings of it, 69, 
note. 

Funds for building, sources of, 97 : lega- 



cies, directions to notaries concerning, 
191,314; candles and wax, contribu- 
tions of, 97, 100, 125, 214, 315 ; subsi- 
dies from the commune, 97, 140, 191, 
204, 211, 296, 304, 311, 313 ; tribute 
from dependent communities and bar- 
ons, 98, 214. 



Gaddi,Taddeo, intrustedwith work upon 
the Campanile of Florence, 223. 

Gerard de Roussillon, account of the 
foundation of the church at Vezelay,33. 

Ghiberti, Lorenzo, opinion of, concern- 
ing Giotto, 221 ; making of the doors 
of the Baptistery of Florence awarded 
to, 238 ; competes with Brunelleschi 
for the dome, 246 ; chosen to oversee 
the construction of the dome, 251 ; ap- 
pointed assistant, 260 ; rivalry with 
Brunelleschi, 261 ; ordered to make 
a chain for girding the cupola, 265 ; 
fails, ib. ; dismissed by the Board of 
AVorks, lb. 

Ghin di Tacco, debate in Council of the 
Bell concerning his stronghold, App. 
I. Doc. vii. 306. See Dante. 

Giotto di Bondone, appointed master of 
the works of the Duomo of Horence, 
220 ; his genius, /7'. ; Ghiberti's opin- 
ion of, 221 ; portion of the Duomo 
built by, ib. ; his desiga for campa- 
nile of, 222 ; his death, 223 ; his burial 
in Sta. Maria del Fiore, ib. 

Gotiiic style, development of, 27; Ital- 
ian practice of, 92, 136. 

Gozzoli, Benozzo, paintings by, 278. 

Guelf and Ghibelline, opposing princi- 
ples of, 104. 

Guido di Battifolle, Count, establishes 
order in Florence, 204. 

H. 

Harry of Astimberg, his right to deliver 
the first stroke in battle, 119. 

Horses, history of the bronze, on the 
front of St. Mark's, 82. 

I. 

Innocent III., elected Pope, 71 ; his char- 
acter, ib. ; crusade incited by, ib. 

Italy, change in fourteenth century in 
the spirit of the people of, 156. 

L. 

Lando di Pietro, sent for to superintend 
work on new Duomo at Siena, 160; 
his death, 163. 

Language and art, parallel in the condi- 
tions of, II. 



INDEX. 



329 



Louis, Count of Blois, joins the crusade 
of Innocent III., 72. 

M. 
Maitani, Lorenzo, his advice concerning 

work on baptistery, and project of new 

Duomo at Siena, 147. 
Manfred, takes Siena under his protec- 
tion, 107 ; sends troops to her aid, 

108 ; indignity to his banner, 109 ; 

sends more troops, ib. 
Medici, Cosimo de', his position and 

character, 276 ; recalled from exile, 

ib. ; rebuilt Convent of St. Mark, 277; 

palace of, ib. ; death of (1464), 276. 
Michele, Vitale, Doge, inscription upon 

the tomb of the wife of, 65. 
Michelozzi, architect of Convent of St. 

Mark, 277 ; of palace of Cosimo de' 

Medici, ib. 
Middle Ages, contrast in conditions of 

the, to those of the ancient world, 8. 
Montaperti,battleof, 118-21. Se&Da7ite. 
Morality and beauty inseparable in the 

highest forms of human expression, 29. 
Murano, date of the Duomo of, 12, note. 

N. 
Nanni d' Antonio di Banchi assists Bru- 

nelleschi in the work upon dome, 247. 
National consciousness, beginnings of, in 

Europe during the tenth century, 6. 
Nature, result of the study of, upon 

Gothic design, 29. 
Neri di Fioravante intrusted with work 

upon the Campanile of Florence, 223. 



Oblates, 151 ; Giovanni Pisano offered 
as an oblate, 139, note. 

Orseolo, Pietro, Doge, rebuilds the pal- 
ace and church of St. Mark, 50. 

Otho, son of Frederic Barbarossa, taken 
prisoner by the Venetians, 68. 



Palaeologus, John, Emperor of the East, 
meets Pope Eugenius IV. at Florence, 
286. 

Pettignano, Pier, his good deeds, 135 ; 
proposal in Council of the Bell to em- 
power him to select prisoners for of- 
fering on the Feast of the Assumption, 
App. I. Doc. vi. 303. See Dante. 

Pisano, Giovanni, his design for fa9ade 
of Duomo of Siena, 137 ; fine imposed 
upon him, 139 ; offered as an oblate 
to the Virgin, ib., note. 

Niccola, his genius and works, 

128 ; his pulpit at Siena, 128-33. 



Plague of 1348 at Siena, 165 ; at Flor- 
ence, 223. 

Priesthood, influence of the, throughout 
Europe, 16. 

Provenzano Salvani, his counsel, 112. 
See Dante. 

R. 

Release of prisoners, or criminals, on 
religious festivals, 134, 215. See 
Dajite. 

Renaut de Montauban, romance of, 33 ; 
the hero engages as common laborer 
on the Cathedral of Cologne, ib. 

Roman Empire, the name of, the source 
of the main political theory of the 
Middle Ages, 7. 

Roman law, influence of, on the unity of 
European civilization, 8. 

Rome, tradition of right of, to the gov- 
ernment of the world, 7 ; condition of, 
at the early part of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, 242. 

Rose of gold, 273, note. 

Rudolphus Glaber, testimony of, con- 
cerning church-building, 17. 



Sculpture, new development in, 232. 
Selvo, Domenico, Doge, completes St. 

Mark's, 50. 
Siena, Archives of, 94, note. 

Baptistery of, demolition of the 



old Church of St. John Baptist, 146; 
foundations of the new, its site, its de- 
sign, 147 ; unfavorable judgment upon 
the work, 148 ; prosecution of the de- 
sign, 150 ; fa9ade left incomplete, 151 ; 
interior completed, 176. 

brigata spendereccia, 157. 

Campo di, laid out in 1194, 89. 



See Dante. 

carroccio of, 1 10. 

character of her people, 88. 

condition of, in twelfth and thir- 



teenth centuries, 87. 

Council of the Bell, 95. 

decline in spirit and character 



of, in fourteenth century, 164, 174. 

Diana's well, search for, 88. See 

Dante. 

Duomo of, its site, 90 ; a civic 

work, 91 ; beginning of its construc- 
tion,//'., 93 ; date of its campanile, 91 ; 
consecration, 92 ; character of its ar- 
chitecture, 93 ; records concerning or- 
igin and progress of design deficient, 
94 ; r opera, ib.; ordinances regulating 
duties of the magistracy in respect to 
the building, ib. ; funds for building, 



330 



INDEX. 



whence derived, 97 ; offerings at Feast 
of the Assumption, ib. ; dedicated to 
Madonna of the Assumption, ib. ; can- 
dles sold for benefit of building-fund, 
100; legacies, 101,314; earliest exist- 
ing records concerning the building, 
loi ; action of Council of the Bell, 
102 ; Fra Melano master of the works, 
ib., 300, note; progress of the work in 
1260, 103 ; services in, before the bat- 
tle of Montaperti, 113; dedication of 
the city to the Madonna, 1 14 ; thanks- 
giving for victory, 122 ; two captains 
buried in, zA; inscriptions, 123; masts 
of carroccio set up within, ib. ; ordi- 
nance concerning offerings of wax re- 
newed, 125, 315 ; cupola completed, 
125 ; irregularities of construction of 
cupola, ib. ; Fra Melano contracts 
with Niccola Pisano for a pulpit, 128 ; 
description of pulpit, 130 ; release of 
prisoners on Feast of the Assumption, 
134; design by Giovanni Pisano for 
the fa9ade, 137 ; description of facade, 
138 ; grant of funds by the commune, 
140 ; altar-piece by Duccio di Bonin- 
segna, 142 ; celebration on taking the 
altar-piece to the church, 144 ; fate of 
the altar-piece, 145 ; new baptistery, 
extension of choir, 147 ; work pro- 
nounced unsatisfactory, 148 ; recom- 
mendation to construct a new church, 
ib. ; resolve of Council to proceed 
with work already begun, 149 ; slow 
progress, 150; oblates, 151 ; enact- 
ments in statute of 1334 in regard to 
the opera, 153 ; new designs, 159 ; re- 
solve to build a new nave, 160 ; Lan- 
do di Pictro superintendent of work, 
ib. ; beauty of new design, 162 ; work 
checked by the plague of 134S, 169 ; 
falling-off of funds, 170; defects in 
new construction, ib. ; deliberations 
concerning the work, 171 ; project of 
new nave abandoned, 172 ; demolition 
of great part of recent work, 173 ; com- 
pletion of the building on the old plan, 
176 ; minor works of adornment, JJec- 
cafume's pavement, zA, w^/"^; close of 
the history, 177. 

Siena, epidemic of 1340, 162. 

Feast of the Assumption, cele- 
bration of, 99. 

Florence, reception of Ghibelline 

exiles from, 106 ; breach of treaty with, 
107 ; war with, loS. 

Fonte Branda, construction of, 

89. See Da7!te. 

Fonte Gaia, water brought to, 

163. 



Siena, Ghibellinism of, 106, 124. 
luxury of, in fourteenth century, 

Manfred takes the city under his 

protection, 107. 

Montaperti, preparations for bat- 
tle of, 111-17; battle of, 117-21 ; re- 
joicings after, 122 ; results of, 124. 

plague of 1348, 165 ; effects of, 

168. 

statute of 1260, form of, 94; ar- 
ticles of, relating to Duomo, ib., 295 ; 
revisions of, 153. 

trades of, list of, in ordinance 



regulating their contributions to the 
Duomo, App. I. Doc. xi. 315. 

tribute of subject communities 



and barons, 98. 
Virgin, dedication of city to the, 



wax, offerings of, for benefit of 



Duomo at Feast of the Assumption, 
97,125,315. 

wealth and power of, mcrease of, 



in fourteenth century, 156, 158, 164. 

year, beginning of Sienese, March 

25, 102, note. 

Simon de Montfort joins the crusade 
of Innocent III., 72. 

Speier, Cathedral of, 20. 

Sta. Maria del Fiore. See Florence. 

Sta. Maria Novella, picture of Duomo 
of Florence in Spanish chapel of, 234. 

Sta. Reparata. See Florence. 

St. John the Baptist, the patron of Flor- 
ence, 212 ; Feast of, 214; release of 
prisoners on the Feast of, 215. 

St. Mark. See Venice. 

St. Mark's. See Venice. 



Talenti, Francesco, master of the works 
of the Duomo of Florence, 226 ; suc- 
ceeded by his son Simone, 231. 

Thibaut, Count of Champagne, takes 
part in crusade of Innocent III., 72. 

Tintoretto, paintings of miracles of St. 
Mark, 48, note. 

Torcello, Duomo of, 23. 

Towers in Italian cities, 91, note. 



Vasari, Giorgio, his Life of Brunelleschi, 
238, note ; his account of Brunelleschi's 
dome, 254; character of his Lives of 
the Artists, ib., note. 

Venetian taste, change in, in the fifteenth 
century, 61. 

Venetians, character of the, 40 ; affected 
by their relations with the East, 41. 



INDEX. 



331 



Venice, admonition of, to a Doge on his 
election, 64. 

affection of her people for, 40. 

appeal of, to the poetic imagina- 
tion, 39. 

belief in the perpetuity of, 43. 

Dandolo's Chronicle oi,\b,note. 

Doge, election of, 63. 

envoys sent from France to, con- 
cerning crusade of Innocent III., 72 ; 
proceedings of envoys to, 73-79. 

festival of the espousals of the 

sea, 70. 

fleet prepared by, for crusade, 

79- 

Frederic Barbarossa and Alex- 
ander III. at, 1 1 77, 66. 

honesty in conduct of public af- 
fairs in, 64. 

houses, private, in, 42. 

independence of ecclesiastical au- 



thority of, 44. 

interests of, 41. 

legend of, 44. 

moral history of, 62. 

nobles of, 42. 

pillage of Constantinople by, 82. 

rank of, in the history of the arts, 

St. Mark, peculiar relation of, to 

Venice, 45 ; legend of, ib.; legend con- 
cerning the translation of the body 
of, from Alexandria in 829, 46 ; mira- 
cles of, represented in pictures by Tin- 
toretto, 48, note ; disappearance of the 
body of, 51 ; miraculous discovery of 
the body of, in 1094, ib.; the relics of, 
placed in the crypt of St. Mark's, 53. 
■ St. Mark's, date of, 12, note; want 



of documents relating to the history 
of, down to fifteenth century, 49, note ; 
first church built about 829, destroyed 
by fire 976, 49 ; rebuilt by Doge Pie- 
tro Orseolo, 50 ; re,modelled by Dome- 
nico Contariniin 1042-51, ib.; finished 
by Domenico Selvo in 1071, ib.; dedi- 
cation, October 8, 1094, 51 ; originality 
of the design, 52 ; architect unknown, 



53; plan, ib.; form of cross, domes, 
and decorations borrowed from the 
East, 54; Romanesque character of 
crypt and apses, Z(^. ; mosaics and dec- 
orations, ib.; centre of Venetian life, 
55 ; variety of materials in, an indica- 
tion of the prevalence of genuine ar- 
tistic spirit in Venice, ib.; effect of col- 
or in, 56; additions, 57; fagade, ib.; 
mosaic decoration of, a means of relig- 
ious instruction, 58; inscriptions on the 
walls, 59-60 ; scheme and subjects of 
pictorial decoration, 59 ; complete at 
the beginning of the twelfth century, 
60 ; campanile of, 61 ; additions from 
1 125-1350, ib. ; various uses of, 63 ; 
slabs of red marble in vestibule, 67 ; 
assembly in, to consider crusade of In- 
nocent III., 75 ; memories of, second- 
ed appeal of envoys, 76 ; bronze horses 
on front of, 82 ; story of, an epitome 
of story of Venice, 83. 

Venice, traditions of the old civilization 
linked to the conditions of the new by, 
39- 

Vezelay, story of the foundation of 
church at, in the Romance of Gerard 
of Roussillon, 33. 

Villani, Giovanni, description by, of the 
walls and towers of Florence, 201 ; 
of conflagration, 203. 

Villehardouin, Geoffroi de, chronicle of, 
of the conquest of Constantinople, 
73 ; sent as envoy to Venice, ib. ; ad- 
dress of, to the Venetians, 76; his ac- 
count of proceedings of the envoys, 

73-Si: 
Visconti, Filippo Maria, Duke of Milan, 
at war with Florence, 269. 

W. 
Worms, Cathedral of, 20. 

Z. 

Ziani, Sebastiano, Doge, brings about 
meeting between Frederic Barbarossa 
and Pope Alexander III., 66 ; inscrip- 
tion on his tomb, 66. 



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